Results 321-340 of 1,760 for speaker:Aideen Hayden
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: I am involved in a voluntary organisation with a premises on the South Mall which has been flooded twice in recent years. Am I correct that no real, permanent outcome is anticipated until 2020?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: There is no immediate solution to the difficulty.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: We are discussing the longer-term situation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: Mr. Owens's point is that there is no mechanism that obliges insurers to take into account remedial works that have been undertaken.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: We have a very commercially-driven insurance market in which insurers will decide not to cover certain households based on their risk of flooding. It is not just a Cork problem. In Dún Laoghaire-Rathdown we have a major problem and have had flooding in a considerable part of the constituency. Any insurance company can decline cover to any household based on excellent information...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: We have no appeals function, body or independent regulator of any description that allows people to report that they have been unfairly refused flood insurance despite the remedial works their local authority has done. Am I correct?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: The first question is what we need to do to address it. We have an entirely commercial market with no right of appeal from the average household, which is unusual in a European context, as Dr. Surminski has pointed out. Is Dr. Surminski aware of any other countries in which there are appeals mechanisms by which an individual householder or business can appeal against an insurer's decision...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: That brings me to my next point, which was also raised by one of my colleagues. Obviously, in a totally commercially driven insurance market such as we have here, insurance companies plan to make profit. Therefore, they cherry-pick the easiest targets and leave behind the old and the sick as much as they possibly can, in this case, the flood-ridden. Is there enough competition in the Irish...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: I will conclude by making a comment more than anything else. While I do not have any statistics on this, it is my experience that premiums overall in this country went up considerably in the past 12 months. One point to bear in mind is the idea raised earlier of a levy on all insurance policies to protect areas where it is particularly difficult to get insurance. We must bear in mind that...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: Before we begin I remind members that we deal with correspondence and other agenda items in private following this session. This is session B, involving representatives from the Office of Public Works and Insurance Ireland. The purpose of this session is to continue our deliberations on the issue of the provision of insurance in areas at risk of flooding and subsidence. I welcome Mr. Tony...
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: The next contributor is Mr. Thompson.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: Before calling Deputy Paul Murphy, I want to ask a brief question for clarification. Under this memorandum of understanding with Insurance Ireland, exactly what information is the OPW giving it? I thought the intention was to provide what was basically a map of the country showing places where a requirement for flood works had been identified. This is where I would like clarification....
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: So the only information the OPW exchanges with Insurance Ireland is in regard to completed flood defence works?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: That is one flood every 100 years?
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: Right. It just goes to show-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: I ask that because, obviously, Insurance Ireland, in terms of what it decides is a flood risk area, has its own maps, geographers and risk assessors looking at potential flood plains and so on. I wanted to clarify that the OPW's role is only to notify information relating to completed flood defence works.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: It should be reflected in the insurance.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: Deputy's Fleming point was that if I saw my area on a list completed flood works it would be happy days, but if it was on a list of areas where flood defence works had been identified as necessary, that would be a different matter. I would like clarification for anybody listening that that is the situation.
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: I am thinking about Deputy Fleming's scenario in which I receive a letter from my insurer saying it has received information from the Office of Public Works-----
- Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform: Flood Risk Insurance Cover: Discussion (15 Apr 2015)
Aideen Hayden: -----that it will be doing some flood defence works in my area.