Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is proving difficult to bring this issue to a conclusion. Since I have come into office we have instigated quarterly meetings with Insurance Ireland. I acknowledge that Deputy Sherlock came to me with information and we are trying to feed it to Insurance Ireland. There are major problems in two areas, the first of which arises in areas where we installed demountable flood defences that are to the highest international standards but the insurance companies are not prepared to insure them. That is a difficulty. We have answered all the insurance companies' questions in terms of the protocol for the erection, maintenance and dismantling of the flood barriers and at our next meeting we will have further discussions on them.

The second area of concern is that people are not able to get insurance because the maps produced by CFRAM are creating difficulties where they are indicative and they should not be used for commercial purposes. We continue to liaise with Insurance Ireland to try to build on that. We are working on that issue.