Written answers

Wednesday, 8 June 2016

Department of Public Expenditure and Reform

Flood Prevention Measures

Photo of Billy KelleherBilly Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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360. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform if as part of efforts to get flood insurance for previously flooded locations, flood prevention works by local authorities will be included as well as those carried out by the Office of Public Works; the updated progress on such efforts; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14549/16]

Photo of Seán CanneySeán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Memorandum of Understanding between Insurance Ireland and the Office of Public Works (OPW), which was signed in 2014, recognises that both parties have a common interest and objective in ensuring that appropriate and relevant information on completed OPW flood defence schemes is provided to insurers to facilitate, to the greatest extent possible, the availability to the public of insurance against the risk of flooding.

The provision of insurance cover and the price at which it is offered is a commercial matter for insurance companies and is based on an assessment of the risks they are willing to accept and adequate provisioning to meet those risks. Where flood defences are constructed to provide protection to areas which have previously been subject to flooding, the insurance industry has made clear its position that the defences should be designed and constructed to protect against a flood event with an Annual Exceedance Probability (AEP) of 1% (commonly referred to as a 100-year flood event). OPW flood defence schemes are generally designed and constructed to protect against a 1% AEP flood event for fluvial flood events and 0.5% AEP flood event for tidal floods. OPW provides detailed background and technical information on its completed flood defence schemes to Insurance Ireland (II), and II members have committed to take all this information into account when assessing exposure to flood risk within these areas. To date, OPW has provided data on 16 completed flood relief schemes to II. II has stated, based on the results of a survey of its members, that flood cover is provided in approximately 98% of household policies nationally. In areas protected by fixed flood defences provided by OPW (12 of the 16 schemes), 89% of policies include flood cover. In the four schemes where demountable defences are used, 78% of policies include flood cover. In total, 83% of policies in areas benefitting from OPW flood defences include cover against flood risk.

Local authorities may carry out flood mitigation works using their own resources. The OPW operates a Minor Flood Mitigation Works and Coastal Protection Scheme whose purpose is to provide funding to Local Authorities to undertake minor flood mitigation works or studies to address localised flooding and coastal protection problems within their administrative areas. This scheme generally applies to relatively straightforward cases where a solution can be readily identified and achieved in a short time frame.

Flood mitigation works carried out by local authorities are not generally designed to protect against a 1% AEP flood event, the desired standard set out in the Memorandum of Understanding. OPW generally would not have detailed technical and design information on projects carried out by the local authorities. For these reasons, there are no plans to include local authority flood mitigation works in the scope of the Memorandum of Understanding.

The subject of insurance against the risk of flooding is one of the matters which will be addressed in the forthcoming report to Government from the Inter-Departmental Flood Policy Co-Ordination Group.

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