Insurance crisis follows floods
There are renewed fears that house insurance premiums are going to sky-rocket following last week’s rainfall in Ballinasloe.
Various parts of East Galway were under water last week – but in the longer term, the big fear is that houses and businesses will not be insured for flood damage.
It is one of those issues that has been causing a huge amount of controversy over the past six years, when Ballinasloe in particular was washed out.
Last weekend, St Michael’s Square was flooded and local residents had to be evacuated.
There has now been a call for local residents to be consulted when it comes to flood alleviation measures. Last Sunday, the town centre in Ballinasloe was a complete flood.
According to Cllr Aidan Donohoe the insurance companies will use this as an excuse why they will not quote for home and business insurance.
Anyone that has an address that contains ‘Ballinasloe’ has an issue with regard to obtaining insurance.
The Fine Gael councillor spent much of last weekend trying to relieve town centre flooding. He was involved in major efforts to pump the town centre flood waters away from Ballinasloe.
This was a daunting task in itself and particularly as the waters ran high. Some parts of the town were submerged in four feet of water during the course of the weekend and early this week.
Cllr Donohoe said that it was the worst possible scenario for Ballinasloe give the fact that it was already a flooding ‘hotspot’ and that insurance premiums were already very high. He said that it would be very difficult to get them down at this stage.
The Fine Gael councillor spent most of last weekend trying to relieve the town centre of flood waters which was not an easy task by any means. Cllr Donal Burke of Fianna Fail was assisting in this effort.
They were using their Council discretionary funds to assist in this effort and, in fairness, they put in a major effort in this regard. They spent hours monitoring the situation in Ballinasloe.