Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 November 2017

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Scrutiny of the Flood Insurance Bill 2016

9:30 am

Photo of Kieran O'DonnellKieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Chairman, I wish to make a suggestion, and I mean no disrespect to Mr. Thompson. The individual insurance companies appear to make their own executive risk decisions. We need to get under the floorboards and find out exactly what they are doing. The committee should make a suggestion to bring in a number of the larger companies and see exactly what they do. I can only speak from my own perspective. The insurance companies have a job to do, but the assessment of this intangible risk is causing problems. I can demonstrate with my own situation. I am based in Limerick city. We have had repeated flooding since 2009, and if we had flooding tomorrow, I can tell you where that flooding will be. It will be in Castleconnell, Montpellier, Annacotty, Saint Mary's Park, Corbally, probably Mountshannon Road, and maybe the Dock Road. In other words, a few defined areas.

I know people who are living in houses that were never flooded. For example, Annacotty is beside Castletroy, a large built-up area, and it was not flooded. Yet, I had people telephoning me, young couples who had bought houses and qualified for house insurance. Then, overnight, they were told that companies would not cover them. Overnight, they have an issue with their house being insured for flooding, and an issue with the marketable title of their house. Mr. Thompson says that there is an 83% rate of coverage, and Insurance Ireland is looking to increase that. Would it be fair to say that the 17% who are not covered are concentrated in a few areas where there are a lot of people without coverage? Would that be a fair comment?

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