New government must have courage to stand up for homeowners facing flood-damage risk
09 Mar 2016 Posted by Vicky Sargeant
AA Home Insurance data indicates that over 700 families had to deal with floods in the aftermath of this winter's storms, racking up costs of up to €27k per household.
According to AA Roadwatch, the following areas were the worst affected: Connacht (Athleague, Ballinasloe, Carrick-on-Shannon, Claregalway, Crossmolina, Foxford and Galway City) and counties Donegal, Westmeath, Roscommon, Tipperary (Carrigahorig, Tipperary Town and Bansha), Limerick, Clare, Cork and Kerry. Millions of euros worth of damage was caused in Bandon, Fermoy, Kenmare and Tralee, while the Blackpool area of Cork City was severely affected by a high level of water flow in the River Lee. Heavy rain has also resulted in severe flooding in communities along the River Shannon: Athlone, Portumna, Shannon Harbour, Montpelier, Castleconnell, Clonlara, Parteen, Annacotty and Limerick City. Ennis was also affected due to heavy rainfall.
Our CEO, Brendan Nevin, believes the next Government should stray from abandoning homeowners who are facing flood-damage:
"The floods have receded and the daffodils are up. They are yesterday's photo-op for our politicians and you are unlikely to hear about the floods from them again until next winter. The affected homeowners are left with a mop in one hand and a huge repair bill in the other.
New data from AA Home Insurance shows last winter's floods affected more than 700 homes. The average cost of damages is €27,000. The total value of home insurance claims is about €20m. That's just for domestic claims. Businesses lost another €30m and the damage to infrastructure will be more expensive again.
The new government will need to show more courage than its predecessors and put an end to the slow-motion disaster of corrupt and stupid planning.
We also need insurance companies to up their game when it comes to helping homeowners and we need to invest in flood defences.
Let's have a little reality check on where we are.
There are now homes in many parts of Ireland that are going to be flooded so often that there is no way an insurance company can ever cover them. They would have to charge the owner a ridiculous amount of money or subsidise them by getting that money from everyone else.
We have to stop that problem getting worse, improve what we have got as best we can by building defences and then find a sustainable way to look after the innocent victims that remain.
The first part means fixing the planning laws.
You might think the stupidity of building on flood plains is a thing of the past. It is not.
The Flood Risk Management Guidelines form part of the 2000 Planning & Development Act and are excellent.
Developments cannot proceed unless assessed against the guidelines, provided the local authority doesn't choose to use one of the many loopholes open to it to avoid the rules.
The very worst of those loopholes, the appalling Section 140, which allowed councillors to overrule professional planners, was finally amended in 2014 after so much damage had been done.
Despite that, there are still too many ways for elected council members to effectively green-light a development despite it being inappropriate.
Let us be clear – certain local authorities and a depressingly large number of elected officials have proved they cannot be trusted with this power.
Their venality and short-sightedness is now costing households millions of euro every year. Our incoming environment minister, of whatever stripe, must act immediately to remove the opportunity for local stupidity to prevail over proper planning.
We have a big enough legacy problem; there is no excuse for making it worse.
We then need to deal with what we have. The Office of Public Works (OPW) identified 70,000 homes in flood-risk areas but that does not mean all of those homes are uninsurable.
Insurers, local authorities and the OPW have been working on getting more and more precise about where the risks are.Instead of identifying areas, there is more accurate flood mapping that is getting to the level of the individual house. Some insurers are much better than others at doing this, but the complacent ones need to be compelled to do a lot more – this will help because it will mean fewer uninsurable homes. But if you are unlucky enough to have one of those houses, you are now more isolated than ever, which is why we need to spend on flood defences.
I presume that we would all agree people who are unlucky enough to live in flood-risk homes cannot be just abandoned. But our record over the last 20 years has been pitiful. The State has spent almost €40bn on transport infrastructure since 1997 because new motorways are sexy.
They make great ribbon ceremonies and the public can't help but notice them. Flood defences, like water provision, are unglamorous necessities.
The existing commitment is to spend €430m by 2021. It is just not enough. Between homes, businesses and infrastructure, last winter alone saw at least €170m worth of damage done.
In some cases, the solution is a removable or 'demountable' flood barrier. That in turn triggers a fresh row because insurers don't want to be forced to trust that local authorities will scramble in time to get them in place when there is a risk of flooding. We need a national flood warning system, as previously promised. We are one of very few modern countries that doesn't have one and if there is a good reason for that, I don't know what it is.
We rely on 'fluvial alert' models that give rough alerts across broad areas. Proper systems accurately predict rainfall, high flows and surge tides with enough time to take action.
If all of this work is done we will still be left with somewhere between 8,000 and 15,000 houses that cannot be insured. It's a big number but perhaps a manageable one.
It then becomes possible to put in place something like the proposed British scheme, whereby all home insurance buyers pay, in effect, a small top-up payment that goes towards the cost of flood damage for those legacy houses.
Based on our history, it might seem ambitious to believe that we will actually carry through on four joined-up measures like these. It can be done, if collectively we are determined not to let the new government off the hook. Most of our flood damage originates from bad choices – rather than bad weather."
First appeared in Irish Independent, 8 March 2016. Words by Brendan Nevin, CEO at AA Ireland.
Written by Vicky Sargeant
Social Engagement Executive, The AA.