COMHAIRLE CONTAE ÁTHA CLIATH THEAS
SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

MEETING OF SOUTH DUBLIN COUNTY COUNCIL

Monday, May 11, 2026

QUESTION NO.1

MOTION: Councillor Y. Collins

To ask the Chief Executive what measures the Council may take to assist residents affected by flooding in seeking future flood insurance post completion of a flood alleviation scheme

REPORT:

The Department of Finance holds primary responsibility for policy matters concerning insurance, including flood insurance. The Department actively engages with the insurance sector on all aspects of insurance reform, addressing issues related to flood coverage.

These topics remain a priority for the Government, and ongoing efforts are directed at promoting a proactive and responsive approach from the insurance industry regarding the provision of flood insurance.

The OPW has a role to assist insurance companies to consider the protection provided by completed flood defence schemes. The OPW has a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the insurance industry. The MoU 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 assist the industry to offer flood risk coverage to the public.

A Working Group functions according to the MOU to facilitate data sharing with the insurance sector. The OPW supplies information derived from the detailed designs of finished flood relief schemes.  

The OPW, through the Catchment Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) Programme, conducted the largest ever flood risk study in Ireland to date, covering 80% of properties venerable to major 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.

The Flood Maps are available to the public at www.floodinfo.ie and show likely flood extents for communities, not individual properties, based on current and future data.

The Disclaimer and Conditions for Use of the 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. Insurance Ireland, the representative body of the insurance industry, has highlighted to the OPW that it does not use the OPW flood maps to inform its flood modelling. The decision on whether to offer insurance, the 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.  In accordance with the EU framework for insurance (Solvency II Directive), the Government cannot direct the provision or pricing of insurance products.

On request, the council can provide a 'Letter of Comfort' to a house owner regarding the flood risk of their property.  This letter will reflect the flood risk from the OPW flood maps on www.floodinfo.ie at the time of the request.