Brian Hayes (Dublin South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for his constructive comments in this debate. For an agreement to be reached, two parties much come together. The State wants that agreement because it is in the interests of the State to establish a written protocol with the insurance industry on the standard of work we have put in place, which is to a minimum of a 100 year event, meaning the works on flood defences will withstand even such an event. We will stand over the work we do; it requires other third parties in the private sector to accept what we are saying. The Deputy will appreciate the frustration I feel in this matter.

The first task is to agree a template of information that at least we are all agreeing with the information being provided, in other words, what we have done since 1995 in terms of major flood alleviation works in urban centres is guaranteed to withstand a 100 year event should such an event occur. Once we have an agreement in that regard and once they accept that I would hope, at the minimum, the insurance companies would provide cover to those areas where major urban capital infrastructure investment has gone in for those flood mitigating projects. I cannot demand with a gun that they do that; I cannot demand that they form an agreement with that because these are private sector companies which argue to me that they have seen substantial losses as a result of the flooding events in recent years but we will continue to work at it.

I use the opportunity provided by this debate to tell the insurance companies that I am frustrated at the lack of progress and that if we have not come to an agreement with them concerning the template of information, we can at least share at a platform level between the federation and ourselves. I want to bring these matters to a conclusion as soon as possible and if people are not prepared to agree, they should say so but to continue at a distance while people cannot get cover is an appalling situation. I fully appreciate and sympathise with the situation the Deputy and his constituents face as it is replicated in many parts of the country. It is one thing not to have insurance cover when one is waiting for works to be done, but it is another to say that there should be no insurance cover where substantial investment has been made by the State. I continue to work with the Irish Insurance Federation and the companies affected to bring them to the table and negotiate a fair settlement on this matter.

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