The Office of Public Works (OPW), through its Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme, carried out the largest ever flood risk study in Ireland to date, which assessed 80% of properties at risk from Ireland’s main causes of flooding. The OPW Flood Maps, that show the flood risk for 300 communities, are a key output of the study together with 29 Flood Risk Management Plans, with the proposed flood relief measures to address the flood risk in each community and nationwide. These maps are available to the public at www.floodinfo.ie however, it is important to note that the Flood Maps are community based and that they are not designed to designate individual properties at risk. The maps show the probable extent of flooding based on future projections. The maps do not show individual properties and therefore they do not identify, if a property is or is not within, or close to, an area at risk of flooding.
The Department of Finance has overall responsibility for policy matters in relation to insurance. The OPW has a role to assist insurance companies to take into account the protection provided by completed flood defence schemes. In this regard, the OPW has a Memorandum of Understanding with Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the insurance industry. This Memorandum sets out principles of how the two organisations work together to ensure that appropriate and relevant information on these completed schemes is provided to insurers to facilitate, to the greatest extent possible, the availability to the public of insurance against the risk of flooding. Insurance Ireland members have committed to take into account all information provided by OPW when assessing exposure to flood risk within these protected areas.
The Disclaimer and Conditions for Use of OPW Flood Maps on www.floodinfo.ie includes a provision that users of the website must not use the Flood Maps, or any other content of the website for commercial purposes. As such, the Disclaimer prevents insurance companies from using the flood maps generated by the OPW. The insurance industry has its own flood modelling tools for assessing the level of risk that it is willing to underwrite in relation to individual properties. The decision on whether to offer insurance, level of premiums charged and the policy terms applied are matters for individual insurers. Insurance companies make commercial decisions on the provision of insurance cover based on their assessment of the risks they would be accepting on a case-by-case basis.
Insurance related complaints or queries may be directed to Insurance Ireland's Insurance Information Service (01 676 1914 or feedback@insuranceireland.eu). In addition, the Financial Services Ombudsman (1890 88 20 90) deals independently with unresolved complaints from consumers about their individual dealings with all financial service providers.
