Housing crisis to deepen as fire experts face 'insurance crisis'

Engineers Ireland told the Oireachtas Finance Committee the insurance issue was deep-seated but had become worse following the 2017 Grenfell Tower fire that claimed 72 lives. File picture: Sam Boal/Rollingnews.ie 

The housing crisis is set to deepen because fire experts can’t get the proper insurance that will allow them to sign off on individual houses, flats, nursing homes, and entire housing estates, an Oireachtas committee has been told.

Engineers Ireland – the professional body that represents 25,000 building experts across the island – said the crisis has become worse in recent weeks as a handful of British insurers that dominate the market have either hiked premiums, excluded building work from their policies, or withdrawn offering personal indemnity insurance altogether.