Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I join my colleagues, as well as every Member across the House, in thanking Deputy McConalogue for bringing forward this motion. I want to acknowledge the Acting Chairman’s work in dealing with flooding issues as Fianna Fáil spokesperson on flood relief.

In the coming weeks, the Minister of State will receive an invitation from the Oireachtas finance committee to deal with legislative scrutiny of the Flood Insurance Bill 2016, a Fianna Fáil Private Members’ Bill. It passed Second Stage in November of last year and has been in the queue for scrutiny since then. Scrutiny will happen in October. The Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach will hear from Fianna Fáil, as sponsors of the Bill, all stakeholders, including Insurance Ireland, the Minister of State and the Irish Flood Forum, which has been consistently raising the issue of areas where OPW food relief schemes have been completed but flood insurance cover has not been reinstated. We heard tonight from Deputy Healy, who represents Clonmel, where an expensive scheme was completed and has worked.

A different solution is needed for communities where the risk of flooding remains. We cannot compel the insurance industry to insure against a risk which is approaching a certainty that there will be another flood event. Over the next five years, the State will invest more than €400 million on a range of flood relief schemes. The OPW is a competent authority. Where it has completed these schemes, they have proved to be effective. There is a reasonable expectation that insurance cover would follow suit.

We all know the consequences for households which cannot get insurance cover. I have stood in homes in Cork which have been flooded three or four times. They have no cover anymore and they will not get it back. For businesses trying to access credit, the banks will look at their insurance policies. If there is a big gap in their cover because they are in an area at risk or one which has a previous history of flooding, they will not get the credit they may need to survive or to expand. It is a key issue which is going to have to be addressed.

In the Government's amendment to this motion, it quotes figures about the level of flood cover in areas where schemes have been completed. Those are industry figures and they should be challenged. If we had not challenged the insurance industry on motor insurance premiums, for example, I do not think we would have reached the worst stage of motor insurance hikes at this point. We challenged the industry and we have made some progress. The Government needs to do the same with flood insurance. Having a memorandum of understanding and sharing information with the industry is not sufficient.

I look forward to engaging further with the Minister of State over the coming weeks where we can get into the detail of the Flood Insurance Bill. We can see how it might be able to assist communities which have benefitted from major investment and have flood defence schemes completed which are actually working. That is the central purpose of that Bill.

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