Mr. Michael Garvey:

I acknowledge the great work that the Tidy Towns associations and other voluntary groups are doing in local communities. I witness that work every day. It is important to state that we do not insure Tidy Towns associations. We insure RSS, Tús and the CE schemes. We insure the employees who work with those voluntary groups. If anything happens to any of those individuals, we cover the costs associated with any injury that might occur. There is a great deal of health and safety regulation with which people must comply. We know that if we are dealing with a personal injury claim and our insured entity or individual has not complied with health and safety regulations, our defence is gone before we start. The regulations exist for good reason and their purpose is to protect individuals. It is no different from somebody driving a car needing to have insurance. A person can be knocked down while working at the side of a road or injured while using equipment, even if it is being used a voluntary purpose. We are here to see what we can do to help. It is important to state that we have changed nothing in our insurance policies relating to any of these employment groups. We have not changed anything in terms of the insurance we provide to the local authorities. All we do with any of these groups is make them aware of what legislation and regulation they need to be aware of and observe for the purpose of protecting themselves. That is where we stand at present.