Michael Collins (Cork South West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I start by commending Fianna Fáil on bringing this Bill forward in consultation with the Irish National Flood Forum, INFF. The INFF is a voluntary national organisation founded in 2011 in my constituency in Skibbereen, west Cork. I have seen first-hand time and again the trauma caused to businesses and families by flooding. Last year, more than 30 towns and villages experienced major flooding. More than 540 homes and more than 600 businesses around the country were flooded. A total of 155 of these homes were located in Cork and 135 of the businesses affected were Cork businesses. These occurred in areas like Bandon, Skibbereen, Innishannon, Dunmanway and Ballylickey, where homes and businesses were destroyed.

In 1944, Deputy Patrick O'Driscoll from Caheragh, west Cork, spoke in the Dáil about the flooding in west Cork at that time. His grandson, Padraig, is here today to see this Bill go through. Sixty-two years later, we are still talking about flooding. I acknowledge all of those in the Visitors Gallery from Skibbereen, Bandon and right throughout the country who have seen first-hand the devastation floods have caused to their communities.

The OPW has spent millions of euro on flood defence schemes across the county and there is a perception that communities which have had flood schemes delivered are dealt with. However, in areas where flood works have been completed and in areas where remediation work has taken place, there is evidence that people still cannot get flood insurance or are being quoted prices that are making it too difficult to get cover. It is estimated that over 50,000 people are still without flood insurance cover in Ireland. The absence of flood insurance is not only a major worry for homeowners and the owners of businesses; it also acts as a brake on the economic potential of a town and a deterrent to any investor. Without flood insurance these towns and communities lack the key infrastructure that is required to reach their full potential. Homeowners can only sell to cash buyers and businesses cannot borrow to reinvest because banks insist on flood insurance. It is not acceptable that property owners, businesses and farmers continue to be left financially vulnerable because they have no access to flood insurance despite flood defence schemes being put in place.

I acknowledge one Minister tonight who did not bother putting on his pair of fancy wellingtons and jumping into canoes. When I visited him in Galway during the year and told him about the flooding that could take place in Bandon, he set about and had the gravel removed. I would like to acknowledge the Minister of State, Deputy Canney.

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