Peter Burke (Longford-Westmeath, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her response. The Minister for Agriculture, Food and Marine has announced a scheme for investment in the horticulture sector, which has been very significantly impacted.

I was very quick to contact the insurance federation to get assurances that businesses affected would be covered regarding their standard practice. While I cannot go into the detail of individual policies regarding excess because they are very different, I can assure people that, in the general course of action and insurance peril, it is part standard insurance cover.

Regarding communications, I have been on to the Minister, Deputy O'Donovan. We are very concerned about getting businesses and first responders which suffered outages at that time back up and running. We have a lot of work to do in that regard. This week Uisce Éireann will get 100 generators to future-proof for such events. The country needs to learn how we respond in future to a very significant event like this. We need to accept there were gaps in the response. Following the investment that went into rural areas through many schemes, there was an exceptional response and communities really rose to the challenge.

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