Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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I am glad that Ms McGrath is engaging with the insurance industry because only yesterday a man from Blackrock in Cork city telephoned me stating he had to take out a new policy under which he was not able to get flood cover although his area had not been flooded. The insurance industry just seems to have a red flag over Cork city in respect of flood cover. I refer also to subsidence on the south side of the city but that is a different matter.

I wish to raise the way in which minor flood relief work programmes or projects are managed. The delegation may revert to the committee on the detail of the case I wish to raise, which relates to a specific location, the Glen, Glenbrook, Passage West, County Cork. I highlight it as an example because a number of houses there were very badly flooded in November 2009. What has transpired since, five years later, can only be described as a circus. In 2010, the OPW provided funding under the scheme of approximately €100,000. There was a small element of co-funding from the council so the total fund came to €110,000. Since 2010, a number of consultants have been appointed. Approximately €35,000 has been spent on consultancy fees but a shovel has not been lifted. I believe there is now an agreed design in place, and the project has been costed at a sum in excess of €300,000. Since the funding committed was €110,000, the council is now scratching its head over how it is to make up the shortfall. There must be a better way of managing projects like this. Money was being spent designing a project that was never likely to be funded. Approximately one third of the money originally allocated is gone on consultancy costs. There is now a more elaborate design, which was not originally anticipated, and there is no money to do the work. The residents cannot get flood cover. They were badly flooded and are coming to us for answers. To be honest, we have been banging our heads against the wall for the past few years. This is a specific example and I do not expect answers now.