Kevin Humphreys (Dublin South East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the delegates and thank them for attending. I realise it took some time to travel here.

The committee has done considerable work on this matter. Mr. Kavanagh outlined that engagement between the OPW and IIF only began to take place in January 2013. This is a direct result of the work this committee has done in highlighting the OPW's work and the lack of communication. However, it is really talk about talks. The parties are still trying to talk the same language. The OPW operates to an international standard applying the figures of 100, 150 and 200. The IIF is dragging its heels regarding the acceptance of the international standards. The talks should now be concluded. We know the international standards and the bill design. In fairness to the OPW, it is actually very professional. Where I have seen its work done, it has been to a very high standard.

Ms Seosaimhín Ní Bheaglaoich was mentioned. Shortly after the committee meeting she attended, there was a lot of rain. I was with Ms Ní Bheaglaoich's neighbours on the Friday evening. They were concerned that there would be more flooding of the kind we saw in the Dublin area. The Dodder rose to a very high level, as did the Tolka.

Sometimes, the first people to react are public representatives and they ask what can be done. Have the delegates considered outlining the first ten steps one should take after one's home has been flooded? Most affected people are in a state of panic and have lost their livelihood. They have lost the pictures. It is not necessarily the cooker that they are worried about. Older people, especially, are worried about the photographs and memories. An older person's husband or wife might have died and they might have lost the keepsakes.

Money is the furthest thing from their minds. It would be useful if there were a ten-step process put in place to assist people in such situations. Has any work been done in this area?

The federation can only advise its members on best practice but has no power to enforce it. Is there a best practice guideline available? This issue affects not just Cork but areas in Galway and Dublin. Over the past two years nearly every week someone has been in contact with my office explaining how the sale of their house has fallen through because the purchaser could not get mortgage approval as the house would not get flood insurance. The geocoding that has been done so far is very poor. In my own area, there has been large Office of Public Works, OPW, flood relief work yet no one can sell their homes because house purchasers cannot get flood insurance. I believe the figures from the delegations today are closer to the truth than the insurance federation's. I can give example after example of houses built in the 1800s that were never flooded but now they cannot get flood insurance because of geocoding. Is there a way around this?