Séamus Healy (Tipperary, Workers and Unemployed Action Group) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this debate and compliment Deputy Charlie McConalogue on bringing forward the motion. There is no doubt that climate change has affected the weather in the past few years. That is something we have to accept and deal with into the future. I was shocked by the television pictures of what had happened in County Donegal in August. I was not on the ground there, but I am not easily shocked by flooding as I come from Clonmel which has been flooded on a regular basis for centuries. I remember looking forward as a young child to a few days' holiday every year as we could not get from Old Bridge to the Presentation Convent or Christian Brothers school in the town. In fact, the most recent phase of flooding happened when I was mayor of the town in February 1995. It was then that we decided that something simply had to be done. We worked with the various agencies and, thankfully, a flood defence system has been put in place of the town and worked. It took quite a long time to get it done, perhaps 15 or 16 years, but it is now in place and has been effective. It cost a huge amount of money - €40 million.

In the short time available to me I will focus on the question of insurance. Even in Clonmel where the Office of Public Works has put in place flood defences at a cost of €40 million, even now the various insurance companies will not cover properties in the town. There are properties which were never or nearly flooded. They are miles from the river, but their owners have been denied insurance. That is something the Minister of State and the Government must take up immediately with the insurance companies. The Office of Public Works has recently produced flood maps for the whole country which the insurance companies are using to deny insurance cover not only to people whose properties are deemed to be at risk of flooding but also to anyone who is anywhere near a flood-risk zone. It is simply unacceptable that they are doing this. I ask the Government to call in the insurance companies to ensure flood insurance cover will be available to households and businesses in these areas, particularly where there are flood defences to deal with once-in-100-years flood events as happened in Clonmel.

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