Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein)
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280. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform his plans to facilitate the growing number of households that cannot get house insurance on their homes and properties in flood risk areas in view of difficulties being experienced by home owners throughout the State following flooding in recent years. [38121/17]

Kevin Moran (Longford-Westmeath, Independent)
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While the Minister for Finance has overall responsibility for the Government’s flood insurance policy, to assist insurance companies assess the risk and take into account the protection provided by completed OPW flood defence schemes, the OPW has a Memorandum of Understanding with Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the insurance industry. This Memorandum sets out principles of how the two organisations work together to ensure that appropriate and relevant information on these completed schemes is provided to insurers to facilitate, to the greatest extent possible, the availability to the public of insurance against the risk of flooding. Insurance Ireland members have committed to take into account all information provided by OPW when assessing exposure to flood risk within these protected areas. To date OPW has provided details to Insurance Ireland on 17 completed schemes nationally and Insurance Ireland surveys its members to ascertain the extent to which flood insurance cover is available in these areas. The results of the most recent survey indicated that 83% of property insurance policies in these areas include cover against flood risk.

In line with Action No. 270 of the Action Plan for Rural Development, the OPW and the Department of Finance are engaging with Insurance Ireland on a quarterly basis. In addition, the OPW and Insurance Ireland have established a sub group to explore the legal, technical and administrative arrangements that may allow for the further sharing of data on flood insurance cover for those 300 areas where the OPW has mapped the flood risk through the CFRAM Programme.

In light of my own experience, and in recognition of the importance of this issue, I met with members of Insurance Ireland last Friday, September 8th, along with Minister D’Arcy and our officials to impress upon all concerned parties the seriousness of this issue. I am satisfied that my officials will continue to work with Insurance Ireland on this matter to ensure that the insurance industry has the required knowledge with regard to OPW flood defence schemes to facilitate, to the greatest extent possible, the availability of insurance against the risk of flooding

The decision on whether to offer insurance, the levels of premiums charged and the policy terms applied are matters for individual insurers. Insurance companies make commercial decisions on the provision of insurance cover based on their assessment of the risks they would be accepting on a case-by-case basis.

The insurance industry has its own flood modelling tools for assessing the level of risk to individual properties and it has highlighted to the OPW that it does not use the OPW Flood Maps to inform its flood modelling.

Any person with an insurance-related query or complaint can contact Insurance Ireland's Insurance Information Service (01 676 1914 or iis@insuranceireland.eu). In addition, the Financial Services Ombudsman (1890 88 20 90) deals independently with unresolved complaints from consumers about their individual dealings with all financial service providers.