On Tuesday 12 January, the Tánaiste, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Defence, Deputy Coveney, the Minister for the Environment, Community and Local Government, Deputy Kelly, and the Minister of State with responsibility for the Office of Public Works, Deputy Harris, met representatives of the insurance industry to raise a number of issues, including the need for flood insurance to be provided in areas where the Office of Public Works, OPW, has completed flood relief schemes and the need to recognise the effectiveness of demountable flood defences in the relevant areas.

In a Government statement following that meeting there was a commitment that within two weeks - which was two days ago - there was to be a follow-up meeting with the industry and that by last Friday the industry was to have responded to the issues raised. We have learned through the media and through leaks in the past 48 hours that the insurance industry has come back, but it has been largely a negative response on these two key issues, in other words, on the issues of taking into account the effectiveness of demountables and the need to ensure all home owners and businesses in areas where OPW schemes have been completed can get flood insurance cover.

It gives me no pleasure to say it but, in effect, the Government has been snubbed by the insurance industry. The outcome means that thousands of home owners and businesses throughout the country continue to be denied flood insurance. There seems to be no strategy at Government level to deal with this.

The insurance industry will say that a high percentage of home owners and businesses in areas where schemes have been completed can get flood cover. However, a survey was released in recent days by a flood alleviation group from Ballinasloe. This is a community project under the auspices of the national flood forum. The group undertook a survey in Derrymullan, Galway. They found that despite the fact an OPW scheme with permanent flood defences - not demountables - was completed five years ago at a cost of €1.5 million, some 60% of those surveyed cannot get flood insurance. The message we are hearing from the insurance companies is not matched with the reality. The figures they are providing to the Government simply cannot be validated.

As the Tánaiste is aware, we brought forward a flood insurance Bill which would compel the insurance industry to provide cover where the OPW has completed schemes to the required EU standard, as set out in the 2007 directive, that is to say, to the one in 100 year standard. The bottom line is that where these schemes have been completed, they have worked, for example, in Fermoy, Mallow and Clonmel. It is not sustainable for the insurance industry to continue to deny the effectiveness of demountables. In some towns the defences have to be of a mobile demountable nature, otherwise the towns simply cannot function. The Government needs to take account of the serious impact this is having. Businesses may not be able to get credit from their banks because the banks will, understandably, seek to ensure there is adequate flood cover. It is going to have an impact on the rates base of local authorities further down the line if this issue is not dealt with.

Did the follow-up meeting which was to have taken place by Tuesday of this week actually take place? Will the Tánaiste confirm that the insurance industry came back to the Government? Will the Government publish the response, whatever it was? Will the Tánaiste outline for Members in the House today the nature of that response? How is the Government going to react to the fact that, unfortunately, the issues raised are not being addressed or dealt with? Ultimately, the people suffering are home owners and business owners who cannot get flood cover in areas where relief schemes have been completed.

I agree with much of what the Deputy has said in respect of the difficulties caused to families and businesses where they are unable to get flood insurance. This discussion with the insurance industry is ongoing. A great deal of detailed work is being done, including an international comparison of what other countries faced with the same issues are doing. Many countries in Europe, including our neighbours in the United Kingdom, are faced with repeat episodes of flooding. Different models of seeking to have the matter addressed through general insurance have been tried in these countries. Some have worked more effectively than others but in all of the countries this is an issue for the insurance industry.

I agree that where significant sums of public money have been spent on either permanent flood defences or on removable or demountable flood defences, the statistics show in a significant number of cases that a proportion of people continue to be denied insurance by the insurance industry. Obviously it is a priority that this should be addressed.

The conversation with the insurance industry is ongoing. On Tuesday, for example, the Minister of State, Deputy Harris, and the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform, my colleague, Deputy Brendan Howlin, presented to Cabinet a detailed proposal in respect of the oversight of the development of the flood risk management programme for the Shannon basin. This has been discussed in the House and it is now going ahead and progressing. I assure Deputy McGrath that as part of the process there was a discussion of the statistical evidence, which shows that notwithstanding the significant sums of public money being spent, some people are being refused insurance even where there are permanent flood defences.

The rate of refusal is significantly higher where flood defences are of the demountable kind. It is an ongoing issue with the insurance industry. The reason a meeting with the insurance industry did not take place as recently as last week was because the Taoiseach had commitments in the UK and the annual conference on the economy in Switzerland. He was involved in heavily promoting Ireland at a very large international business conference. I do not think that people would have wished him to do anything other than go and defend Ireland. I anticipate that the follow-on meeting with the insurance industry will happen quite soon.

I ask the Tánaiste not to treat us like fools. The suggestion that the Taoiseach's commitment to attend the conference in Davos and to meet Prime Minister David Cameron in London were arranged in the past two weeks is not credible. The fact of the matter is that a commitment was given on 12 January that a follow-up meeting with the insurance industry would take place within two weeks. That did not happen and the Tánaiste has not been able to tell the House that a date has been set for a further meeting between the Government and the insurance industry.

In the meantime, the issues raised by the Tánaiste, Taoiseach and a cadre of Ministers with the insurance industry - there was great fanfare when the meeting was organised - have simply not been addressed. The reality is that they have come back and rebuffed what the Government has suggested. What is the Government going to do about it? The Government has been snubbed. The reality is that this issue cannot go unaddressed. Home owners and business owners in communities around the country are living with the daily fear of being flooded again and not having flood insurance.

As the Tánaiste well knows, the particular issue we have raised relates to areas and communities where OPW flood relief schemes have been completed to the required standard, at the expense of taxpayers and in line with the EU directive, and where they have proved to be effective. The Government has unvalidated figures from the insurance industry. A survey from the national flood forum was carried out in Ballinasloe. One example is Derrymullan, where €1.5 million was spent on permanent flood defences five years ago which have proven to be effective. Some 60% of those who responded to the survey cannot get flood insurance. It is a real issue.

Get back in the boat.

The Government brought in the insurance companies and asked them nicely what they would do about the problem. We are hearing a lot of motherhood and apple pie, but not a lot of action.

It is not good enough because people feel that the insurance industry is not stepping up to the mark and providing cover.

They are the same as the banks.

We are not asking it to provide cover where there is a probability of property being flooded in the future. That is a much more complex issue, as the Government knows. The reality is that €1.4 billion has been collected from insurance policyholders in respect of the 3% stamp duty over the past 15 years. People are asking what that money was for. In cases where schemes have been completed, what will the Government do about the issue?

The response of the Tánaiste is not good enough. I want to know whether there will be another meeting with the industry before the election. What is the Government committed to doing? Will the Tánaiste give a commitment that the Government is prepared to introduce legislation if necessary? Ultimately, the industry will only act if that threat is made and they are compelled to provide cover.

The Government devoted an extensive part of its meeting on Tuesday to the issue which received priority from all of the Deputies in the House, namely, the very serious situation regarding the Shannon. Deputy Michael McGrath and Deputies from other parties raised the issue. On Tuesday, the Government gave the go-ahead for the Shannon co-ordination group. This will mean all of the different agencies, bodies, stakeholders, citizens and businesses, including groups in Ballinasloe, that have an interest in the enormous difficulties facing home owners, businesses and farmers in the Shannon region would be brought together under the umbrella of the Shannon co-ordination group.

While discussions about the Shannon have taken place in this country since, I understand, well before independence-----

We are talking about insurance.

-----this is the first time that a Shannon co-ordination group has been established.

It is a toothless body.

If the Deputy wants us to do serious work-----

Send the Minister, Deputy Kelly, out with a bucket. He might drain it quicker.

-----on what is a really serious issue, namely, the provision of insurance, we need to set about doing it properly.

It is being done in other areas.

The Shannon co-ordination group is under the chairmanship of the OPW and will bring all of the stakeholders, public and private, involved and affected by the Shannon together for the first time in the history of the State in a co-ordinated group.

I refer to where schemes have been completed.

The Deputy may not have heard what I said.

Around the house and mind the dresser.

We have undertaken a survey of the practice in other European countries and the United Kingdom in regard to insurance and the investment of significant sums of public money in flood defences.

Answer the questions.

As a Government, we are committed to spending €430 million over the next five years on flood defences.

Answer the question.

The Government cut the budget for 2016.

It is far more than Fianna Fáil ever spent on flood defences.

Answer the question.

Please, this is Leaders' Questions.

If the outcome of that-----

If the outcome is that we spend €430 million and, as a consequence, the people whose homes and businesses are protected still fail to get insurance, we will have to develop a system of providing cover to people who are affected. If we rush this-----

Rushing is not in the Government's vocabulary.

On earlier occasions, the Deputy said he was not happy that ordinary policyholders would immediately carry the cost of everybody who needed flood insurance. This issue requires very serious analysis of how we address the issue.

In the meantime, is it a case of having to paddle one's own canoe?

As a country we will spend €430 million on flood defences. If the result is that there is no cover for people whose homes have been permanently protected and people whose homes and businesses have been protected by demountable defences, that is not acceptable.

I told the Deputy that on Tuesday the Government spent a considerable part of its meeting-----

All talk and no action.

-----analysing the issues in detail, including the fact that at this point in time the Irish Red Cross has given well over €500,000 to hundreds of businesses throughout the country, including some in the Deputy's county. I want to salute the Irish Red Cross. My Department has paid out very significant sums to over 400 families affected by flooding. In addition, the Minister for Defence and the Department of Defence have dropped fodder by airlift to farms in Galway affected by flooding.

Was there any fodder on the boat?

All of this was discussed in detail at the meeting of the Government on Tuesday.

Order, please.