I want to address flood insurance or should I say the lack of flood insurance. It is estimated at over one in 20 homes and businesses is unable to access insurance. Over the past few weeks, I have met residents from Aughrim, Enniscorthy, Arklow and Bunclody and have seen at first hand the devastation caused by flooding. Moving forward, their biggest concern is simply that they are unable to access insurance. This problem has been replicated right across Ireland. Properties that are protected by multimillion euro flood defences still cannot get insurance. The Government must stand up here as these homes and businesses were approved by the authorities, so we simply cannot walk away. We need to implement a Government-backed scheme in conjunction with Insurance Ireland that is fit for purpose and will address the gap that currently exists and not leave thousands of homes and businesses without insurance.

I thank the Deputy for raising a very important issue. There was a meeting this morning of the Cabinet subcommittee on evaluating Storm Chandra. We will deal further with the issue of insurance but there needs to be a balanced, combined approach between the insurance industry and the State. It involves the investment the State is making in a quite significant number of flood relief programmes and the degree to which those flood relief programmes should also impact future insurance, which sometimes can be problematic in the aftermath of the completion of such flood review schemes. Work is under way. We are not walking away from the issue but, equally, it cannot all fall on Government either and the industry has obligations too, so we will engage with the industry and endeavour to see whether we can land this in a zone that both can live with. More importantly, it is about ensuring that the people who are suffering can have some security around their homes and businesses.