Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

This matter was already discussed today with the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Brian Hayes. I submitted this matter on the Adjournment last week when I was not aware that a debate on flooding would be on the Order of Business today. I have said three or four times in the past week that the Motor Insurance Bureau Fund is available to compensate an uninsured person involved in a road traffic accident but unfortunately we do not have a similar facility for people who have insurance for a residence or commercial premises but cannot get insurance cover for flooding. We will have to deal with this problem. I have studied the UK structure which costs approximately £10.68 per insurance policy to create the fund. There are at least 1.6 million premises insured in this country which could contribute €5 each.

The money should not all come from the insurance industry but Government should work with the industry to create and build up that fund. We do not get severe weather conditions every year but if there is a gap of three years the fund would be quite substantial. We should consider this and plan for the long term. I would like the Government to engage with the insurance industry. It is engaging in respect of other matters. This is an extremely important matter. I have come across some extremely difficult cases, for example, one in which there was subsidence and the people had not renewed the insurance policy because they were away on holidays. When they came back the insurance company said it could not renew the policy and the people are left with no insurance on their house. We should consider this. The insurance industry is making good money out of building and household insurance. We should work with it to make long-term plans.