Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent)
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The Memorandum of Understanding between OPW and Insurance Ireland provides that OPW will provide Insurance Ireland with detailed background and technical information on all completed OPW flood relief schemes, including maps showing the extent of the area protected, and that Insurance Ireland member companies will take into account all information provided by OPW when assessing exposure to flood risk within these areas. 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). Currently all OPW flood defence schemes are designed and constructed to provide at least this level of protection.

It is open to any person seeking property insurance to supply insurers or insurance brokers with any relevant information on flood defences which might influence a decision on the provision of cover. Consideration of this information would be a matter for the relevant insurance company.

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, the Department of Finance has been carrying out research in the area of flood insurance including an analysis of the different approaches to flood insurance taken in other countries. This will then feed into the Committee’s report to Government this summer.