Michael Fitzmaurice (Roscommon-Galway, Independent) | Oireachtas source

We have read over the past week that insurance companies in Ireland made €159 million in profits in 2021. In 2018, the figure was €130 million. There has been a substantial increase. It is not that I am against companies making profit. In fairness, the Government brought in changes to help in respect of the insurance debacle relating to this country. It is alarming when one gets an email that the insurance companies seem to be picking and choosing and doing their own thing. I received an email from a young person who was approved for a mortgage and who did the right thing at a time when 20% of people missed having smear tests. The person in question went and had a smear test. Irregularities were found but everything was sorted. She was approved for a mortgage but the insurance company has informed here that she cannot get health insurance or mortgage protection. This person, who did not want a social house and who had obtained mortgage approval and was doing her own thing, is being held back.

An estate in Ballaghaderreen that was built 40 years ago has never had a problem with water, flooding or anything else. I checked with Roscommon County Council and there was never a problem. The council could see nothing in any way that could affect the estate. I checked the Office of Public Works's one-in-100-year and one-in-1,000-year maps. Lo and behold, an insurance company decided randomly to get a Dutch company to look at the estate to which I refer. People will probably find out that it also looked at other estates throughout the country. Some genius, as part of a desktop exercise, decided that there may be a risk of flooding down the line and the residents of the estate can no longer get insurance.

While I recognise some of what has been done by the Government over the past number of years in respect of insurance, what more can we do to try to put manners on the insurance companies in the context of some of the things they are doing? Can the Tánaiste talk to the Central Bank about this matter? What these companies say is that unless everything is 100%, they will not insure people. That is not what insurance is for. If you crash your car, you draw your insurance. The premium might go up a small bit, but you still get insurance. A person who did the right thing in the context of her health and who obtained mortgage approval will not now be able to draw down the mortgage because of the rules being implemented by her insurance company. What can the Government do to help the people to whom I refer, as well as those who are affected by insurance companies just pulling something out of a hat? There is no way of disproving what they are saying to the effect that there may be a flood risk somewhere down the line. What can the Government do in respect of this matter?

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