INSURANCE companies have a responsibility to offer policies to householders in areas where flood alleviation measures have been provided, Minister of State for Finance Brian Hayes has said.
The State had invested €234.5 million in the last five years in measures to manage flood risks, said Mr Hayes, who has responsibility for the Office of Public Works.
The experience of having one’s home flooded was very traumatic he said, and householders who had been denied insurance because of previous floods should be able to expect a reinstatement of cover if State money had been spent on flood works.
“Where the State invests significantly in putting a flood defence in place, I believe the insurance industry has a responsibility to provide insurance for people.”
Speaking at a conference on flooding in UCD yesterday, Mr Hayes pointed to the success of recently installed flood defences on the Tolka River in Dublin.
Houses, particularly in the Drumcondra area, had in previously years been badly flooded when the river broke its banks, but there was no flooding during the extreme rains on October 24th last.
Mr Hayes said he had recently met the Irish Insurance Federation, and the main insurance firms, and hoped to have a protocol for dealing with the issue in place shortly.
Flood maps for the entire State were being developed so mistakes of the past were not repeated, he said. “We have a very bad record in planning in this country. The State now must spend money undoing damage that was done needlessly as a result of very poor planning and development – and very poor decision-making.”
