Kathleen O'Meara (Labour)

I saw none of that but I thank the Minister for that information.

To reiterate the point about preparedness and what we would do, God forbid, if something like that happened here, we need to be prepared even if we only have one incident in many years. We need to be ready and I hope resources are in place to ensure we would be able to deal with such an incident. The legislation is welcome and my one question, which the Minister does not have to answer today, relates to the increase in compensation. The Minister stated this is to be increased by about 50% and that amendments on Committee Stage will have the effect of increasing almost fourfold the amount of compensation payable. In dealing with the amendments I hope we can examine that in detail as I would like to explore this matter and see exactly how it would operate in practice, who would get the compensation, who would dispense that compensation and what structures would come into play to ensure that would happen. When it comes to how victims would access the compensation mechanism to be put in place, one cannot help but think of the people in Mayo who were hit by the extraordinary landslide recently. When people are in such a situation we must ask what the best structures are to deal with the fallout fairly, judiciously and speedily. I look forward to the completion of the debate on this legislation.