Arthur Spring (Kerry North-West Limerick, Labour) | Oireachtas source

On this occasion Cork and Kerry are quite alike, without having as many All-Ireland medals. That is particularly so in Tralee, Ballylongford and the Cashin, which are prone not only to river flooding but also to tidal flooding. The enormity of the infrastructure that is required to protect it is such that it is probably beyond comprehension both financially and geographically.

I wish to make a number of points. One is the inability of people to access insurance due to the OPW maps which point out areas that are open to risk and areas that have potential under the catchment flood risk assessment and management, CFRAM, programme, which is the study undertaken to identify areas that are potentially open to more flooding in the future with the increasing levels of tides and sea levels. Insurance companies have identified these and are not allowing any insurance in these areas at all.

Mr. Owens referred to France and Belgium, where people cannot be denied insurance. I am of the opinion that there should be not so much a sinking fund as that everyone should have access to insurance. However, people can be denied insurance by the fact that the price of the insurance can be too onerous. It can be extortionate in nature and essentially push a person away from taking it on. Will Dr. Surminski say whether there is a cap and collar mechanism in place whereby there is a percentage insurance companies can make on individual homes, more so than businesses? We have given a great deal of time to discussing businesses. However, business has the ability to trade its way out of the problem at some level, but individuals do not have that ability. The valuation on a house, especially for the fair deal scheme, access to houses, the ability to re-sell individual homes and the ability to trade up and trade down, which the Government is trying to encourage, are all enormously affected by whether one's house is in such an area. Are there tax incentives in other countries as well? Dr. Surminski referred to a Swiss scheme earlier, whereby there was state involvement in the protection and in the payment thereafter. Will she explain a little further how that works?

Currently, there are people in this country who do not have access to insurance and their homes are increasingly prone to flooding. The industry as a whole appears to be socialised when it goes into a default position of collapsing, as we notice from the levies imposed here, but when an insurance company is in a position to privatise and alleviate higher risk, it does so to the detriment of society. Cork has been mentioned a great deal at this meeting, but the problem is getting worse in my area. I know the witnesses do not wish to cite an example, but we will have to do something about this. If Dr. Surminski could give us some type of roadmap, we could diverge from that along the way. What does she think is the best thing for Ireland to do at this point?