Mr. Barry Sheridan:

On behalf of the Irish Men's Shed Association, I thank the committee for inviting us to this meeting about instance costs for community groups. The availability and cost of insurance are important considerations in developing and sustaining Men’s Sheds.

Men’s Sheds provide a valuable and welcomed service to local communities. The initiative was introduced to Ireland in 2011 and there are now more than 400 sheds located in communities across the 32 counties, with more than 10,000 men in regular attendance. A shed should be a safe environment where men can meet and participate in various activities. In this way, they can overcome social isolation, improve personal well-being and contribute to the community.

The rapid growth of Men’s Sheds in Ireland indicates its value to members and their families as well as their wider communities. The Irish Men’s Sheds Association offers an umbrella organisation to affiliated sheds, in particular to those in the early stages of development. Our priorities include sustaining sheds, individually and collectively, improving the well-being of shed members, co-ordinating volunteers and communicating key messages. In this capacity we have heard countless inspirational stories from shed members and their families about the benefits of participation in a shed, sometimes life changing experiences.

Once a shed has overcome the challenge of finding a suitable property, it must then obtain suitable insurance. While this may be a common challenge for many community groups, the nature of activities in a shed may incorporate particular risks, such as undertaking workshop activities like carpentry.

It is a precondition of the Irish Men's Sheds Association, IMSA, membership that affiliated sheds have appropriate insurance in place for the activities they undertake in order to protect the health and safety of shed members. Unfortunately, our experience to date indicates limited availability of insurance and volatile insurance premiums. In response to these issues, which we believe threaten the sustainability of sheds, IMSA is continually exploring insurance options on behalf of affiliated sheds. While we have had some success, the issue continues to frustrate many sheds, most recently the perceived growth in insurance premiums. The pain is particularly acute for small sheds challenged by low economies of scale and with limited capacity to raise subscriptions or attract donations. In addition, standardised policies do not accommodate the diversity of activities in local sheds and their very different insurance risk profiles.

We are just coming towards the end of a nationwide engagement programme with our sheds, which we call "cluster meetings", where we bring together all the sheds in each county for open dialogue on key issues. We are halfway through that process at the moment. Insurance is one of the main issues we discuss, including how different sheds overcome the challenge. The cost of insurance brings significant pressure on many sheds with limited financial resources. We have recently developed a good working relationship with one particular insurance provider, FBD Insurance, for which we are very grateful. This is a practical partnership. FBD Insurance has local agents on the ground who can meet members of local sheds to discuss ways to make the shed a safer place.

It is also important to acknowledge that insurance underwriting is a complex discipline of which we and our affiliated sheds have limited direct experience. We can only speak from the perspective of a community group that requires insurance and struggles to obtain it at a cost we believe to be reasonable. We recognise the role of this committee in advising relevant Ministers on proposals that promote and co-ordinate economic and social planning. While we are not making a specific proposal today, we welcome the opportunity to speak as an interested party with practical experience. We also recognise the commercial needs of the insurance industry and our obligations as community groups providing services to the public. However, we simply wish to express a real concern that the availability and cost of insurance may needlessly restrict important community services such as ours. By their nature, most community groups are thinly spread across the country and, unlike commercial enterprises, they find it difficult to consolidate in pursuit of scale without negatively impacting on their reach into communities. In this context, the threat of continually rising insurance costs could threaten the sustainability of men's sheds in Ireland.