Maureen O'Sullivan (Dublin Central, Independent)
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215. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if she will continue to engage with the Irish Insurance Federation to discuss flood insurance for those areas where considerable preventative and alleviation works have been carried out; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [37099/14]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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On the 24th of March of this year, my predecessor, Mr. Brian Hayes T.D., announced details of a Memorandum of Understanding between the Office of Public Works and Insurance Ireland (previously known as the Irish Insurance Federation), the representative body for insurance companies in Ireland, on the exchange of information on flood defence works. The Memorandum of Understanding outlines the principles of agreement between the OPW and Insurance Ireland on the information being provided and how it will be used by the insurance industry. The Office of Public Works has committed to provide Insurance Ireland with data on all completed OPW flood defence schemes showing the design, extent and nature of the protections offered by these works. Insurance Ireland members will then take into account all information provided by the OPW when assessing exposure to flood risk within these areas from 1^stJune 2014.

To date, the Office of Public Works has provided information on 12 completed flood relief schemes in an agreed format to Insurance Ireland. The schemes concerned are:

Clonmel (River Suir)

Dublin (River Dodder Tidal)

Dublin (River Tolka)

Dublin Fingal (River Tolka)

Duleek (River Nanny)

Dunmanway ( River Bandon)

Ennis (River Fergus Upper)

Fermoy (River Blackwater)

Kilkenny City (River Nore)

Meath (River Tolka)

Mornington (River Mornington)

Tullamore (River Tullamore)

The information provided to Insurance Ireland has also been published on the OPW website . Information on further completed schemes will be made available to Insurance Ireland by the OPW before the end of the year, as work on compiling the data in the agreed format is finalised.

Officials from the Department of Finance meet, on a regular basis, with Insurance Ireland. The Department has recently requested Insurance Ireland to provide information on the specific actions taken by the industry to meet its obligations under the MoU, the extent to which insurance companies are actually using the details provided by OPW on completed schemes to re-assess flood risk in the benefiting areas and what impact this is actually having on the availability of flood cover where not previously available and/or on the cost of that cover to households or small business. I will be meeting with Insurance Ireland shortly, and I will be pressing for this information to be provided.

Decisions on the provision of flood insurance cover and on the premiums to be charged will remain a commercial matter for individual insurance companies but I expect that the operation of the MoU and the continuing investment by the State in major flood defence works will lead to the greater availability of flood insurance in areas benefiting from those works.