Departmental Funding
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-05
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Dara Calleary (FF), Mayo

I agree. Insurance costs in this country continue to be a massive challenge, particularly for festivals, but also for businesses, including small businesses. I was a Minister of State in the previous Government in the Department of enterprise, which led on this work. It is a matter of enormous frustration and anger to me that all of the work that we have done has not resulted in insurance deductions for small businesses, festivals, homeowners or car owners. Insurance continues to be a challenge for festivals and for local voluntary groups. We work with the Department of agriculture, for instance, which provides funding for insurance for shows. Insurance is a major challenge. We will definitely zero in on it. Following today's session, we will ask our officials to work with officials in the Department of tourism in this space and work with the various festivals to identify if support is available. It will not be available in 2026 as festivals get to that planning phase. Insurance is a major challenge. The insurance industry has not delivered on the reforms that this Government and previous Governments have brought in.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-05/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-05