Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail)
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533. To ask the Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform the number of times in the past two years the OPW has met with the insurance industry regarding flood insurance under the memorandum of understanding; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [14862/21]

Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael)
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The Department of Finance (DOF) has overall responsibility for policy matters in relation to insurance.  The Office of Public Works (OPW) has a role to assist insurance companies to take into account the protection provided by completed OPW flood defence schemes. In this regard, the OPW has a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the Insurance industry. This MOU 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.

While Insurance Ireland members have committed to take into account all information provided by OPW when assessing exposure to flood risk within these protected areas, the MOU does not guarantee the availability of flood insurance. 

A Working Group operates under the terms of the MOU and this Group meets on a quarterly basis.  During the period 2019/20, the Working Group met on eight occasions in total.  The next meeting of the Group will take place on 24th March, 2021.    

The insurance industry has its own flood modelling tools for assessing the level of risk that it is willing to underwrite in relation to individual properties. The decision on whether to offer insurance, the level 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.

Insurance related complaints or queries may be directed to Insurance Ireland's Insurance Information Service (01 676 1914 or feedback@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.