Martin Browne (Tipperary, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Next is petition No. 36 of 2021, titled “Reform of Insurance for Thatched Heritage Buildings” and submitted by Katie McNelis. This petition relates to the difficulties people have in getting insurance for residential and commercial thatched properties. The petition has been before the committee on multiple occasions since October 2021. Ms Katie McNelis and the Thatched Property Insurance Action Group appeared before the committee on 29 September 2022 and the then Minister of State with responsibility for financial services, credit unions and insurance at the Department of Finance, Deputy Fleming, and the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform at the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, Deputy Noonan, both appeared before the committee on 24 November 2022 with regard to this petition. Since then, the committee has corresponded on multiple occasions with the petitioner and relevant Departments.

The committee referred the petition to the European Ombudsman for comment. The ombudsman responded and confirmed that she can only deal with complaints that relate to alleged maladministration by EU institutions, organisations, bodies and agencies as regards their administrative activities and thus, as the complaint concerns the actions or inaction of the Irish State, it falls outside her mandate. However, the European Ombudsman posed a question to the Council on behalf of the committee.

The Council was asked “Does Directive 2009/138/EC (Solvency II) preclude Member States from introducing domestic legislation to require regulated insurance companies to provide cover for certain risks, notably building risk insurance for private owners of protected buildings with specific characteristics?” In the Council’s reply, it stated that insurance coverage for specific risks and for specific policyholders may require higher insurance premiums which, in some circumstances, could be considered unaffordable by the prospective policyholders. Where this is the case, it is sometimes possible for member states to take action, for instance, by adopting legal provisions protecting the general good in their territory that increase the supply of affordable insurance coverage for a given risk, thus making the insurance market work more effectively. The Solvency II directive does not rule out such interventions in the insurance market per se. For instance, Article 179 of the directive acknowledges the possibility that member states could discretionally impose obligations to take out insurance. This possibility has been used by several member states with respect to certain risks and as part of a broader set of actions that, taken together, were intended to improve the effectiveness of their national insurance market. In a similar vein, the Solvency II directive does not per se preclude member states from setting up public private partnerships or introducing provisions in national law that require authorised insurance undertakings to cover certain risks provided that no state aid rules, provisions of the Solvency II directive or provisions of the treaties and EU legislation protecting the single market for insurance are infringed.

This committee recommends that the correspondence from the European Commission be forwarded to the petitioner for comment, that the committee write to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman regarding the issues raised in the petition and that the committee invite the Minister of State at the Department of Finance with special responsibility for financial services, credit unions and insurance, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, the Minister of State with responsibility for heritage and electoral reform, Deputy Noonan, Peter Boland of the Alliance for Insurance Reform and representatives of Insurance Ireland to the next public meeting to discuss the issues raised by the petition and the response from the European Commission. The proposed date for that meeting is 16 November. If there is agreement, we will ask them to attend that meeting.

This is a petition that has dragged on. Ms McNelis was in today. She is worried about a family home and pub for which she has failed to get insurance. It seems to be a problem for all buildings with thatched roofs. She has recently got a quote for €5,500, which is crazy. We have also received notification today from a man who was quoted €3,700 for insurance. When we had witnesses in on this issue, what came across was that, if we lose our thatched cottages, the only place we will see them is on the postcards we send back when we are out foreign to say "wish you were here". That would be an awful pity. We all have them in our own counties. I think of Newport in Tipperary or of Holycross village. The first thing you meet when going into the village is a row of thatched cottages. Adare in Limerick is another example. The matter has been raised in Europe by the committee and by Chris MacManus, MEP. There does not seem to be a blockage as we were led to believe last time, when it was suggested that our Government could not get involved. If there is agreement, we will ask both Ministers of State in again to tease the issue out and see if we can get some sort of movement from the Government here. Is that agreed?