Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to discuss the issue of flood insurance and a national flood insurance scheme. I had a meeting with the Minister of State, Deputy Troy, last Wednesday in which I raised this very subject with him. I was delighted that he responded in the meeting that he was anxious to do something about it. It has not been looked at here in Ireland for ten years. I was delighted to open the newspapers on Sunday to see the Minister of State’s comments about the need for this type of scheme. It is great when we can work together within the Government on things like this.

When looking at a flood insurance scheme like this, it is important we look at both the household and business sides of it. There is a flood relief scheme in the UK that I have asked the Minister of State to look at.It looks at the housing side of things. It is reinsurance where people pay a small portion into a general insurance scheme and then when their house gets flooded in the area, there is money there for them. I strongly call for this to be applicable to businesses as well. One only has to look at what happened in Enniscorthy last week in particular. I know a lot of other areas were affected but it was especially heartbreaking in Enniscorthy. As a business person myself I cannot even imagine walking in the next day and seeing everything gutted. When we are working from week to week in business, sometimes there is not the spare money there. I know we have great schemes from the Government to support households and businesses but to be able to go to sleep at night time knowing that there is some sort of cover would make a massive difference. I am looking forward to working on this with the Minister for Finance, Deputy Harris, and the Minister of State, Deputy Troy. I welcome that we have started the conversation on it.