Insurance companies are charging “colossal prices” or offering no insurance whatsoever to some Carlow residents.
That’s according to Cllr Willie Quinn, who raised the issue at this week’s meeting of the full County Council.
He claims households as far out as Glynn are categorised as floodplains by insurers, even though they’re not in direct proximity to the River Barrow.
And he says the issue requires government intervention, noting “I know some of the CFRAM maps that we have seen, areas that they’re talking about maybe it could happen in a hundred years time, that’s completely crazy, how can people insure their properties and that that have been insuring them for years and now all of a sudden they find out they can’t insure them or the insurance company won’t take them on or they’re charging colossal prices to take them on, something needs to be done about this on a government level because the insurance companies seem to have a free-for-all at the moment”.
He adds “When they were asked about what the problem was they were saying that insurance companies were using the CFRAM maps as regards flooding, now everyone knows that Glynn is a far way away from the St Mullins, from the River Barrow, so it doesn’t make sense how people are being treated like that with insurance companies if they’re going to use the CFRAM maps and I think it’s totally wrong that insurance companies are allowed to do this”.
For more on the Catchment-based Flood Risk Assessment and Management (CFRAM) maps click here
