Mr. Enda O'Donovan:

I will comment on some of the points. There were four events in Clonakilty, two of which should be insurable. It is all about the probability of an event returning, for example, if that probability is one in 300 years. Take the heavy rainfall of 28 June 2012, which was catastrophic, with unbelievable rain. Some 64 mm fell in a couple of hours. The probability of that amount of rain falling in that place again must be one in 300 or 400 years and therefore that event should be insurable. Even though Clonakilty has a name for tidal and other kinds of flooding, events of that kind should be insurable. It is about probabilities and protocols. There is more than one kind of flood. There are houses that should never get cover for tidal flooding but they should get cover for different kinds of floods. Clonakilty experienced four different kinds of flood in one year, which was unbelievable, but they were of different kinds.

At present the insurance industry is getting away with it on the basis of if it flooded cover will not be provided. That is the wrong way of dealing with it. It should be a science. We should be able to calculate something but what the industry is claiming is because an area flooded once it will be permanently excluded from cover. That is wrong but it is what we are up against.