Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I apologise that I will not be able to stay long as I am expected in the Chamber shortly.

I thank the Ministers of State and their officials for coming before the committee to discuss this. We had good engagement with witnesses in the past and I welcome them to the Public Gallery again. This is an important issue and I acknowledge the work the Ministers of State have undertaken since our meeting in September in engaging directly with the Thatch Property Insurance Action Group. I note some positive statements from the remarks made by both Ministers of State.

With respect to the insurance element, I understand what the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, said about the limited number of operators and the limited choice. There is perhaps some light at the end of the tunnel as regards opportunities, especially in the commercial area but, as my colleague stated, the biggest issue is that some people are relying on a commercial insurance policy that is not fit for a residential property. That poses all kinds of challenges for them. Equally, the announcement of a further grant and assistance for people to avail of by the Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, is welcome. However, I do not detect a sense of urgency or concern. The Ministers of State mentioned that approximately 490 people responded to the survey, which is quite good. He stated it was about one quarter. Did the Minister of State state there are approximately 2,000 thatched properties in the country? I expected the number to be higher. Nonetheless, regardless of how many there are, in our previous engagement on this matter, I asked about the database that has been spoken about for many years. Will the Minister of State inform the committee regarding its status? It is important that all the owners of these properties, who are custodians, as the Minister of State correctly put it, have an opportunity to link with one another and that the combined problems they face can be dealt with. In fairness to the Ministers of State and their Departments, there is a willingness to try to resolve these issues. No one wants to see thatched properties disappear. I certainly do not want to see any more disappear.

The other element of this is the planning side.

We are dealing with planning on a wider scale at present. However, I hope that when people go to redesign or refurbish a thatched property that a sympathetic eye will be turned to the fact that we want to ensure that we retain these properties in their current format by the architectural conservation officers in the respective local authorities and by the planners. The Minister of State, Deputy Noonan, also mentioned a committee has been established and that a thatcher is chairing it and there is another thatcher on the committee, which is very welcome because we need to ensure we have that expertise. We also said at this committee in September that we wanted to retain the skillset in this country to ensure we can protect these properties. The Ministers of State might respond to those few questions. Unfortunately I have to take my leave of the committee.