Many rural communities are battling to stay positive and promote new initiatives, writes Niall Garvey. 

Up to 50,000 Irish homes have either no flood cover or are at serious risk of losing it, while insurance companies operate a cartel to maximise their profits, an Oireachtas committee heard yesterday.

A lobby group representing people living in flood-risk zones has called on the Government to exempt from the new property tax, homes that cannot get flood insurance cover.

THE Government is to ring-fence money in the budget to shore up the country’s flood defences.