Minister Moran Meets With Insurance Ireland and Calls for a New Insurance Model to Speed Up Cover for Completed Flood Relief Schemes

TRIM, Ireland, Sept. 8 -- Ireland's Office of Public Works issued the following news release:

Attending a meeting this morning between Mr. Michael D'Arcy T.D., Minister of State at the Department of Finance with representatives of Insurance Ireland, Minister Kevin 'Boxer' Moran, TD, Minister of State with special responsibility for the Office of Public Works and Flood Relief called on insurance companies to accelerate the rate of insurance cover to areas protected by OPW flood defence schemes.

Minister Moran stated he was concerned at the current delay of up to 21 months from the date the OPW provides data on completed flood relief schemes for the increase in insurance cover to be fully apparent. "As Minister responsible for Flood Relief, I would like to see Insurance Ireland come forward with a new model of cover for homeowners once schemes are completed that would see this 21 month delay greatly reduced."

In its latest report the Working Group indicated that in 16 of the areas protected by OPW flood defence schemes, on average 83 percent of these homes have flood insurance. This average varies between 90 percent of the homes protected by permanent flood defence schemes and 77 percent protected through a demountable scheme.

Minister Moran said "The Government has invested EUR285m in major flood defence schemes since 1995 and are built to the standard required by the insurance industry. This investment is protecting approximately 8,000 properties with an estimated benefit to the country of damage avoided of over EUR1bn. I would like to see the insurance industry providing a quicker and higher return to this significant investment through increased insurance coverage."

The Minister welcomed the current dialogue between the insurance industry and Government on improving coverage for areas protected by demountable defences. Minister Moran has asked Insurance Ireland to report back within a number of weeks with a plan as to how the risk cover in these areas can be increased.

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Notes to Editor:

The Department of Finance has lead responsibility for Government policy on all insurance matters, including flood insurance. The focus of the last number of Governments has been to work on the development of a sustainable, planned and risk-based approach to dealing with flooding problems through the building of flood defences which should in turn lead to the increased availability and reduced cost of flood insurance. In November 2016 the Government approved the continuation of this strategy from the detailed analysis included in the interim report of the Interdepartmental Flood Policy Coordination Group.

The availability of flood insurance cover continues to be high profile topic; the Action Plan for Rural Development has an action: Strengthen the engagement with the insurance industry to improve the availability of flood insurance cover, given the State's ongoing investment in flood defence schemes.

OPW and Insurance Ireland

A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) between the OPW and Insurance Ireland has been in place since June 2014. Under the terms of the MOU a Working Group was established to facilitate the sharing of information on completed Flood Relief Schemes. The OPW provides Insurance Ireland with electronic maps showing the extent of protection (the benefiting area) for flood defence schemes completed to the agreed 100 year protection and the design standards to which they have been constructed.

The Working Group, which includes representatives of OPW, Insurance Ireland and the Department of Finance, hold quarterly meetings, to ensure that appropriate and relevant information on completed OPW flood defence schemes is provided to facilitate, to the greatest extent possible, the availability to the public of insurance against the risk of flooding.