Cathal Crowe (Clare, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The principle of risk equalisation works well and it makes sense in the health realm. It makes no sense whatsoever insofar as flood cover insurance is concerned. In my county of Clare, a county of 118,000 people, one person in 12 is unable to get flood cover on his or her insurance largely due to flood events that happened ten, 12 or 15 years ago. What we have since is a national database of flood maps. We have had umpteen work programmes that have remediated flood areas but still the insurance sector, time and again, is levying on other people. Because one house in a community of 2,000 or 3,000 homes took in a drop of water in 2009, the whole community has to pay a penalty. It is becoming a major barrier to people trying to sell their houses. If you go to a bank or if you go to your solicitor and conduct conveyancing, you will be advised not to take out a mortgage on that property because it cannot get flood cover. This also needs to be in the realm of insurance reform.

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