Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

It is easy to deploy resources when there is a flood pending. It does not involve a big cost. It is a matter of sending somebody down to observe. Insurance Ireland's members need to be on the ground observing what is happening in real time for themselves. Insurance Ireland's members hold 95% of the domestic insurance market and 85% of the international life insurance market in this country. I do not see why they cannot go down to places such as Fermoy, Mallow and other areas which have been covered by capital works carried out by organisations such as the Lagan Group and Arup. Arup is a global leader. It carried out the flood alleviation works in Mallow.

Arup recently conducted a study with Lloyds of London on offsetting or mitigating against risk for catastrophes owing to climate change in global cities. Lloyds is a member of Insurance Ireland. I acknowledge Mr. Thompson will not be able to respond to this but when Arup was doing the flood alleviation works as consulting engineers, its cover for insurance was being provided by one of the witness's constituent groups. I find it incongruous that Arup could be covered by one of Insurance Ireland's constituent groups and the works could be stood over but that after the fact, the people who rely on those works could not be covered by one of his constituent groups. Can Mr. Thompson understand the level of anger that exists in this regard? I believe some members of Insurance Ireland have already decided they absolutely and utterly will not provide flood cover regardless of what protocols Insurance Ireland puts in place or are covered by the memorandum of understanding, MOU. They have just taken a corporate decision. Mr. Thompson himself mentioned the profitability and risk profile earlier and because of that, they are just not going to get into or are withdrawing entirely from this market.