People in flood-risk regions 'won't get' insurance
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LARGE parts of the country at risk of flooding could become uninsurable in the future because of soaring premiums.
Insurance companies expect to pay out up to €400m to flood victims, and this will push up the cost of house and motor insurance for everyone.
So far, up to 1,700 people have been evacuated from their homes, with up to 600 houses and apartments abandoned because of rising flood waters.
Five thousand local authority workers, 600 defence forces staff and 350 civil defence officials were on duty at the peak of the floods last week, with homeowners in Carlow, Clare, Cork, Galway, Kildare, Leitrim, Limerick, Roscommon, Tipperary and Westmeath affected.
Industry sources last night warned that some homeowners would not be able to get insurance or would not be able to afford it.
"The re-insurance companies will come into play," one said. "They will look at the flooding, which will lead to increases, and they will be more aggressive with their premiums. It's not beyond the realms of possibility that some areas could become uninsurable. It's not that insurers will set out to make it unaffordable, it's that increases will probably come into play. What the scale of those increases will be depends on the risk and what the re-insurers do."
Another added: "Some parts of the country are uninsurable. There are parts of the country where you won't get flood damage cover. It's going to be tough for the insurer, and for the consumer."
The cost of rebuilding the country after the devastating floods of the past week is set to reach up to €800m.
Last night, the country's biggest insurance company, Hibernian Aviva, estimated that the cost of flooding damage to homes and businesses around the country may exceed €250m.
But industry sources said the bill was more likely to reach €400m, and that the cost of repairing or replacing expensive infrastructure such as roads, bridges and railway lines, paying for accommodating hundreds of people left homeless and meeting the overtime bill for emergency services workers could double that estimate.
"The Irish Insurance Federation has said the flood claims from last August came to €100m. That's going to be well exceeded," one source said.
"Until the water abates and you can do a full assessment you don't know. It will be two to three weeks before a real assessment can be done. Certainly, it will be more than €150m, and the thinking at the moment is it could be €200m plus. It could reach €300m-€400m, it's possible. Land doesn't matter -- it's uninsurable. It's the properties. The longer water is there, the more damage is caused."
Subside
In further bad news to homeowners, it emerged that it could take three weeks for flood waters to subside in some of the worst-hit areas.
Chairman of the Emergency Response Co-ordination Committee Sean Hogan said he was "concerned" about extreme high tides forecast for the next few days and said if there were gale force winds, the Shannon Estuary could be affected.
He said this could cause the water to be driven up the estuary towards Limerick city, adding that it could take up to three weeks for waters to subside in Co Westmeath.
Environment Minister John Gormley said that some discussions had taken place about securing EU assistance to help pay the bill, but they were at an early stage.
The European Union Solidarity Fund was set up to respond to natural disasters and member states can apply for funding if the cost of the damage caused exceeds 0.6pc of the country's gross national income.
For the threshold to be reached, the eventual bill would have to be more than €800m. The money can be used for the restoration of infrastructure, including power plants, drinking water treatment plants, roads, schools and hospitals.
- Paul Melia and Fiach Kelly
Irish Independent
