Dáil debates

Thursday, 20 June 2019

Ceisteanna Eile - Other Questions

Flood Risk Insurance Cover Provision

11:50 am

Photo of Kevin  MoranKevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I was looking at my data this morning and 95 schemes to protect those people who are most vulnerable to flooding are under way at present. That number will tell the Deputy what this Government has done over the last ten years and, in particular, over the last three years. It is a lot of schemes. I have met people and travelled right around the country. I have seen where flood defences, particularly hard or dismountable defences, have led to people now getting insurance. People are now seeing the work done by the OPW and local authorities right across the countries and are benefitting from it. I can and will get information in that regard if that is what the Deputy requires.

On the Deputy's comment regarding the Minister and the €3 million taken from my portion of the Vote, I agreed that this money could come out of flood defences. There has been a lot of talk today about contract overruns, what we are spending money on, and where money will come from in future. A scheme on which I have been working in Cork has been going on for ten years. It is costing €150 million. It is the biggest such scheme in the history of the State. Ten years later, and after the three years I have spent as Minister of State, shovels are still not in the ground. Delayed schemes such as this are where the delay to which the Minister has referred will come into play. It is a scheme which will protect people and on which I am working.

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