Insurance Industry
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-10
============================================================

Noel McCarthy (FG), Cork East

I thank the Minister of State for his response. I know he is acutely aware of the impact of damage caused by flooding and the lack of insurance cover thereafter. My constituency of Cork East, particularly Castlemartyr, Killeagh, Mogeely, Midleton, Rathcormac and Whitegate, suffered extensive flood damage caused by Storm Babet in October 2023. Flood relief schemes and protection measures are progressing but they remain years away from completion. An individual property protection scheme to provide flood protection barriers has also been established but again the roll-out has been slow.
Insurance payouts appear to be minimal in the aftermath of storms. I know of one man whose entire fleet of cars was destroyed but he was only paid roughly 10% of the value of his policy, leaving him with only the legal route to pursue his losses. Others will not be insured again having received a payout. These are real people with real stories. In the absence of flood schemes insurance protection gaps in flood prone areas have developed. I ask the Minister of State to do all he can to ensure constant engagement with the insurance industry and relevant stakeholders.
I would also like to be associated with the Minister of State's words of praise for all of the emergency services.

---

Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted.

Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-10/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:36+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-10