Delay in processing of flooding claims alleged

Insurance companies have been accused of "abusing their position", "bullying" and acting like "cowboys" in their treatment of insurance claims from the recent Dublin flooding.

Opposition deputies called on the Minister of State for Enterprise to intervene with the insurance companies and to call in the insurance ombudsman over their response to residents of Ringsend and Irishtown.

The Minister, Mr Noel Treacy, said he had no role in the processing of insurance claims but he had raised the matter with the Irish Insurance Federation at the request of Mr Eoin Ryan, Fianna Fáil TD for the area. The federation had assured him that there was "no undue delay in these cases".

The Labour leader, Mr Ruairí Quinn, alleged that claimants were getting "bad and oppressive" treatment from insurance companies because of the nature of the community they came from. His constituency colleague, Ms Frances Fitzgerald (FG, Dublin South-East), said that the community had been "seriously assaulted by the stress of the flooding". All four TDs for the constituency had issued a joint statement calling on the insurance companies to expedite the claims of the residents, who were all experiencing "serious difficulties" in the processing of their applications.

Mr John Gormley (Green Party), from the same constituency, accused the insurance companies of behaving like "cowboys" with a "totally superior, dismissive attitude", which he said was "intolerable".

Mr Quinn said that the insurance companies were abusing their position in the treatment of this "devastated and vulnerable community".