Dr. Swenja Surminski:

That is an interesting idea. One could argue that, if a certain region is being left out, there is a business case for someone to come in and provide insurance cover there. In that context, one could argue that certain highly specialised niche insurers might want to consider that region. However, I want to add a word of caution here. Insurers obviously have to decide how much risk they can take on, and they are heavily regulated in terms of ensuring they are actually making a sound decision on that. They also have to be able to say, for example, in regard to a decision to write insurance cover in Cork, how the work that is being planned affects risks this year, next year or in two years' time. Insurers are very much looking at the next 12 months when they consider underwriting. Some people would almost call this market failure because a lot of the flood risk work is more in the medium and longer term while the insurance focus is on the next 12 months. It is sometimes hard to argue that an investment or some remedial work that is going on will have an impact within the next 12 months.