Pádraic McCormack (Galway West, Fine Gael)
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Question 133: To ask the Minister for Finance if house insurance is available to persons whose houses were flooded in the November and December 2009 floods; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25277/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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My Department has been liaising with the Irish Insurance Federation in order to establish how many people are unable to get flood cover and where these people are located.

The IIF has indicated that approximately 98% of householders who have household insurance currently have flood cover. They point out that insurers look at the claims history of the individual risk when deciding what underwriting action to take. They also look at any flood protection measures implemented by the local authority or OPW in the area. They say that where the flood risk is higher than normal people will generally pay a higher premium, or have a higher flood excess on their policy. They make the further point that withdrawal of flood cover at renewal generally only happens in exceptional cases e.g. repeated flooding, as the industry tries to provide such cover wherever possible.

My Department is currently seeking more detailed information from the IIF on the non-availability of flood cover, but particularly in relation to location. The intention is that there would be a match up of these problem areas where people are having difficulties obtaining or renewing cover with whatever corresponding remedial work is being carried out by the Office of Public Works. By approaching it in this way it should allow better resource allocation of the remedial works and also better address the underlying problems.

When this information is provided it should give us a better idea of the scale and nature of the flood insurance problem.