Reform of the insurance sector is long overdue, but one of the most visible injustices is the refusal of flood insurance. Homes and business are often denied this vital cover which worsen the effects and worry over flooding. 

Audio recording was taken during Farnet seminar in Bantry.

Terence Gibbs, owner of the Cosy Cabin, in Barrack Street in Bantry said that he was holding his breath waiting to see if the insurance company would pay out after his premises was destroyed overnight.

“It is not a cosy cabin now. It is a wet cabin. We had about 17 inches of water. I will be the first person to to welcome in 2021. I don’t want to remember this year. We are open six years and we ‘celebrated’ our anniversary with closed doors in July because of Covid.

Exhausted and frustrated, Gearóid Wiseman is counting the cost of the seventh flood since the 90s to swamp his third-generation family business.

After a 12-week lockdown closure, painstaking preparations to reopen safely, and a flurry of stock deliveries in recent days, his clothing and footwear shop, Wiseman’s, in Bantry, West Cork, was one of 50 premises in the town swamped during Storm Francis when a culvert was overwhelmed.

“All that preparation to reopen after lockdown is gone. We have to start again. It’s just heartbreaking,” he said.

And he issued a strong message to the authorities after the third flood event to hit the region in just over two weeks.