Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We have raised this before, as has the Chairman. I have previously mentioned examples in my community where a river flooded nearly a decade ago and caused substantial damage to businesses and homes in the vicinity. I know of one homeowner who was refused insurance because of the potential for that river to flood again. Looking at a map one would see that the home is quite close to the river and therefore one might believe it is at a risk of flooding. However, because not all land is flat, if one were in the area, one would see that the house is on the top of quite a high hill. If that house were to flood, a big part of the parish would also flood. There is concern about insurance companies taking a blanket approach based on their own maps or the Department's maps showing that a house is close to a river. Local knowledge is not being brought to bear.