Nearly 50% unwilling to pay a flood premium

Nearly half of Irish people say they are not willing to pay a premium on their insurance to support the owners of houses that cannot get home insurance.

An AA Home Insurance survey of 6,970 respondents found that 19.66% were ‘somewhat unwilling’, while 29.41% were ‘not at all willing’ to pay a higher insurance premium in order to support the flood victims of “legacy” houses that will not be insured, even after flood defence works are completed.

The AA said it is estimated that some 8,000 to 15,000 homes will not be able to get insurance, regardless of the protections provided by any flood defence works.

“There is a lot we can do to stop floods causing damage but even when that is complete there are some homes that will remain impossible to insure,” AA CEO Brendan Nevin said.

“We all agree that we cannot just abandon these people who are innocent victims of bad planning. We have to look after them; the question is, how?”

The AA said it took more than 1,100 direct comments from respondents regarding the proposal.

“Many felt that it was the State that should bear the cost,” Mr Nevin said.

“People are not being unsympathetic to victims but they do ask why the economic cost of bad planning and foolishness should be paid for by ordinary homeowners when they buy insurance. It is a reasonable point.”

Only 4.76% of respondents said they were ‘very willing’ to pay such a premium, and 24.94% said they were ‘somewhat willing’. More than one in five (21.23%) said they were neutral on the proposal.

The research also finds that 97% of people think a restriction of planning law in Ireland is “critical” to solving the country’s flooding issues.

“Despite the termination of powers once held by councillors, there are still too many ways for an inappropriate development to get the green-light,” Mr Nevin said.

“Building on flood-plains can still effectively occur. Our Flood Risk Management Guidelines, devised so that we no longer had an excuse when building in appropriate areas, contain rigorous assessments. Even so, we’re still running the serious risk of avoiding, or massaging, the rules.

“Those next in authority must show more courage than their predecessors, bolster commitments already made and dedicate vigorous efforts to solving this problem.”

A regional breakdown of attitudes shows that Dublin residents were more likely to be either somewhat or strongly willing to back such a premium (32.93% combined), while Donegal respondents were most likely to be somewhat or strongly against the idea (59.87%).

A total of 29.69% of Cork respondents said they were either somewhat or strongly willing to pay a levy.