Insurance claims resulting from Storm Éowyn are expected to reach as much as €200 million, according to early estimates by the insurance industry, making it the fourth-most-costly weather events for the sector since the beginning of the century.
Insurance Ireland, the industry representative body, briefed the Department of Finance on Tuesday evening that the impact of the weather event would likely result in €150 million to €200 million of damage claims costs.
The preliminary figure was based off a survey of the body’s members, who had received claims worth €116 million as of January 31st. A firmer estimate of costs will take weeks to emerge.
Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe wrote to the insurance industry last week telling it that a surge in claims following the storm must be handled quickly and fairly.
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“Insurers are working as expeditiously as possible to get through claims and are even bringing in additional resources to assess them,” said Moyagh Murdoch, chief executive of Insurance Ireland. “Their customers will be treated fairly. If you have to have interim repairs done, insurers will work with you. We advise you to take photographs and keep receipts.”
The industry has received criticism in the past, however, over the pace at which it has made payouts following other big claims events, such as floods and business interruption stemming from Covid-19 pandemic lockdowns.
Since the beginning of the century, only one event — freezing conditions across the country in January 2010 — led to claims of close to €300 million for the Irish insurance industry. Flooding in November 2009 was the second most-costly episode, costing insurers €244 million. Another big freeze in late 2010 led to €224 million in claims losses.
However, Storm Éowyn is the biggest storm event, from a claims viewpoint, for the insurance sector since at least 2000, according to Insurance Ireland records. The second-most-costly was Storm Darwin in 2014.
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More than 25,000 homes, businesses and farms were still without power on Tuesday, 12 days after Storm Éowyn brought dangerously high winds and gusts of up to 183km/h causing countrywide damage, according to EBS Networks.
The State-owned company said it has restored power to 738,000 customers since the storm led to unprecedented damage to the electricity network. Those who remain without power will have their supply restored over the course of this week, it added.
Guy Carpenter, of the reinsurance broking arm of insurance intermediary and risk consultancy Marsh McLennan, estimates that Storm Éowyn will result in a wind-related industry loss of €621m in Europe, mainly in the UK and the Republic.
Industry experts have predicted the growing prevalence of weather events will likely lead to higher premiums for consumers.
Insurance Ireland told the Minister that damage caused by storms is a standard insured peril on all household insurance policies. However, it said that house insurance premiums are not generally affected by one event such as this storm, but rather by the cost of a range of many different rating factors and insured perils.
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