Catherine Murphy (Kildare North, Independent) | Oireachtas source

As the Chairman said, there are cases where there might have been a flood in a small area in a valley following something that happened on a hillside and the entire area is put on some sort of floodplain, which is nonsensical. I could bring Mr. Horan to places where that is happening today. Huge investment has been made in flood defences. There does not seem to be any kind of certification system to deal with areas that have had the flood defences built. They do not seem to get any kind of benefit when seeking insurance subsequently. I recently spoke to a person living in a housing estate on a hillside whose insurance policy specifically excluded flood. There is no water anywhere near that house other than in the tank in the attic. That seems very unfair. Also, once work is done, there is no certification to recognise that those areas are not at the same level of risk as they would have been prior to the work taking place.