Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to follow up on what the Senator has just said in regard to the insurance industry. I am concerned that local authorities have not corresponded with the Irish Insurance Federation outlining what action they have taken to ensure there is not a repeat of the flood event that occurred in Cork. A councillor had a question tabled to one of the local authorities in the past week and the response was that the local authority felt it had no obligation to correspond with the Irish Insurance Federation. That is appalling because these are people who are experiencing difficulty in getting insurance. The Office of Public Works and local authorities should correspond with the Irish Insurance Federation and set out what action they have taken in order that there is not a repeat of the flood event that occurred in the past 12 months to two years.

I had a sad case recently where an elderly gentleman who came to my office understood he had full insurance cover. When he submitted a claim he was told by the insurance company that the first ¤10,000 was not claimable; the old rule was ¤1,000. We argued with the insurance company that this was unfair. He got no letter advising him that the excess had been increased from ¤1,000 to ¤10,000. I ask the insurance industry to be careful in how it manages its own affairs. We argued with the company and insisted on the claim, other than the ¤1,000, being paid and eventually it gave in. This elderly man had to engage other people to fight for what he was entitled to. That was appalling behaviour by the insurance industry which collects a good deal of money from householders and to behave in this way is unfair. Returning to the earlier issue I ask the Minister to correspond with local authorities requesting them to write to the Irish Insurance Federation setting out what action they have taken, as well as getting the Office of Public Works to do likewise.