John McGahon (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to raise a report from the Central Bank about the flood protection gap. This appeared in the Irish Independent yesterday. Essentially, the flood protection gap is a problem that affects some parts of the country more than others, with 54% of the flood protection gap concentrated in just five counties. These counties include Dublin, Cork, Kildare and my own county of Louth. The flood protection gap is where houses, which were built below sea level, are at risk of flooding and insurance companies will not insure them. That is the case in my home town of Dundalk and specifically where we have tens of thousands of houses in the eastern part of Dundalk, along the coastline. This affects houses, whether they are in Bay Estate, Lennonstown Manor, Manydown Close or Avenue Road. I know the Leader has been to Dundalk. This affects a huge part of the town. None of these houses is able to get flood protection. In recent years we have put a substantial amount of money into reinforcing flood barriers along the way but, again, it is taking an extraordinary amount of time to this get done. We see freak weather accidents becoming more common. Every winter flooding is becoming more common and we saw that in north Louth last year.

How do we fix this? I am ten years in politics and this has been an issue for those ten years. The Central Bank raised very valid concerns about it. The Minister of State, Deputy Richmond, as this is his area of responsibility, is doing a bit of work on it. If insurance companies are not willing to insure people, which they should do, surely the Government or the Central Bank needs to consider what ways they can step in and intervene. God willing, whether I am in this House, the other House or wherever I am after next election whenever it comes - perhaps in the next few weeks - this is an issue I will continue to be very concerned about and will want to continue working on. It is an issue on which I would like to start the process, in the last week or two weeks or however long we have left in this Seanad. It is simply not acceptable that insurance companies do not insure tens of thousands of houses in a town the size of Dundalk. We need to do something to fix it so the people in those areas get the proper flood protection they deserve.