Éamon Ó Cuív (Galway West, Fianna Fail)
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72. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform to clarify the issue of meetings held over the winter with representatives of the insurance industry; if he has reached agreement on home owners being refused flood cover because of the perceived threat of flooding; if he will advise residents accordingly; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [9172/16]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The Office of Public Works (OPW) has no role or function in relation to the oversight or regulation of insurance matters. The provision of insurance cover, the level of premiums charged and the policy terms applied are matters for individual insurers.

As I informed the Deputy in reply to his question on 14 April last on this subject, the Taoiseach, Tanaiste and other Ministers, including myself, met the CEOs of the insurance industry on 12 January of this year to communicate the benefits of flood defence schemes carried out by the Office of Public Works and to discuss the provision of flood insurance in areas protected by flood defence schemes. Subsequently, Insurance Ireland, the representative body for the insurance industry, advised that approximately 98% of property insurance policies nationally include flood cover and that in areas protected by flood defence schemes constructed by the Office of Public Works (OPW), 83% of policies include flood cover. Insurance Ireland advised that the rate of cover is 89% in areas protected by fixed defences and 78% where the protection includes demountable defences. Demountable defences are used in four of the sixteen schemes that have been completed to the 1:100 year standard, required by the industry. A further meeting of the OPW/Insurance Ireland Working Group on flood insurance (which also includes the Department of Finance) took place on 7 March, and a further meeting is scheduled for June.

The subject of insurance against the risk of flooding is one of the issues being considered by the Inter-Departmental Committee which is developing whole-of-Government policies to support the OPW Flood Risk Management Plans. In this context, officials of the Department of Finance are undertaking research in the area of flood insurance which will include an analysis of the different approaches to flood insurance taken in other countries. This will then feed into a report from the Committee to Government which is expected to be completed before the summer.