Government ministers and the insurance industry have engaged in a public bout of mutual recrimination on the issue of flooding. Their efforts to deflect blame and to minimise responsibility for the flooding crisis will, however, do little to reassure flood victims whose waterlogged homes are uninhabitable. Taoiseach Enda Kenny blames the insurance industry for failing to do more for those adversely affected, or at increased risk. Minister for the Environment Alan Kelly has claimed that insurance companies were refusing cover in areas where flood defences have been built. Insurance Ireland, the industry's representative body, disputes this and insists that where fixed flood defences are in place, the rates of coverage are "very high". Successive governments, it suggests, by allowing building to take place on flood plains and by failing to invest in adequate flood defences to protect against periodic flooding, have only made matters worse.
The impact of flooding, whether the hardship and misery imposed on individuals and households or the financial cost incurred, cannot be under-estimated. In a flood risk area, where insurance cover either cannot be obtained, or secured at very high cost only by paying an exorbitant premium, this will have a hugely negative effect on house prices. Home owners will be left with a depreciating asset, one they may be unable to insure, and consequently that they will find difficulty in selling.
The Government has announced a number of extra proposals in response to the flood crisis. These include financial assistance for farmers for uninsured fodder losses, and the establishment of a co-ordination group to supervise flood management plans along the river Shannon. But when Mr Kenny meets insurance representatives next week, he needs to get clear answers to two questions: what flood cover is being offered in high risk flood areas; and, in the event of remedial action being taken to reduce the likelihood of flooding, is the industry prepared to recognise that change, and the reduced risk, by providing realistically priced cover for properties in those areas?