Eugene Murphy (Roscommon-Galway, Fianna Fail)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

98. To ask the Minister for Rural and Community Development if his attention has been drawn to the threat to many rural festivals, féile and community type events in terms of the exorbitant insurance costs and threat of personal injury claims; the way in which he plans to address the issue; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38587/18]

Michael Ring (Mayo, Fine Gael)
Link to this: Individually | In context | Oireachtas source

Policy responsibility for the Financial Services and Insurance sectors lies with my colleague in the Department of Finance, Minister of State Michael D'Arcy, T.D.

In January this year, Minister D’Arcy published the Cost of Insurance Working Group’s Report on the "Cost of Employer and Public Liability Insurance". This report is available on the Department of Finance’s website.

I am aware that the cost of public liability insurance can be a real challenge for many festivals and other community events and activities. In that regard, I have made funding available to Mountain Rescue Ireland over the past number of years to help defray their insurance costs.

I am also aware that my colleague, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, has made funding available to Agricultural shows, specifically to help defray the cost of their insurance.

I separately allocated €800,000 to almost 120 Agricultural shows throughout the country last year, in recognition of the difficulties experienced by such shows in recent years. I allocated a further €600,000 to the shows this year, to enable them to invest in and improve their shows for 2019.