The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) today announced that €224m has been paid to home and business owners as a result of the freeze that affected the country during December 2010. This was the third severe weather event to affect the country during a fourteen-month period, which saw the insurance industry inject over € ¾ bn back into the Irish economy.

During the severe freeze, which affected the entire country last December, insurers dealt with almost 30,000 claims relating to damage to homes and businesses caused by burst pipes. Household claims cost €173.1m, while commercial claims amounted to €50.6m.  The worst affected counties were Cork (€32.4m), Galway (€24.7m) and Dublin (€20.2m) (Full provincial and county breakdown below in notes to editor).

Mike Kemp, Chief Executive, IIF said, “The scale of damage caused by the December freeze should not be underestimated and the subsequent quick response from insurers assisted many homeowners and businesses in getting back on their feet as fast as possible. Severe weather events such as these have been very rare events in the past in Ireland. To have had the three largest weather-related losses in our history in such close succession has put pressure on the market, but insurers have repeatedly displayed their resilience and as a result have injected three-quarters of a billion euro back into the Irish economy in a fourteen-month period. To put the extent of this payout in context, the cost for severe weather events for the past ten years before the November 2009 floods amounted to €358m., or less than half the cost of the three most recent events.”

Although the freezing weather affected the whole country, some areas were disproportionately affected. Munster accounts for 28% of the population but accounted for approximately 40% of the claims cost, and Leinster accounts for 54% of the population but only accounted for 32% of the claims cost. The cost of claims in Connacht/Ulster was 28% of the total but accounts for only 18% of the population. 

Some counties were particularly badly affected in relation to their population. The top five worst affected counties in terms of cost per thousand people in each county is as follows:

The bottom three counties affected were: (full list below in notes to editors)

Although the freezing weather conditions might seems like a distant memory, the IIF is urging people to review their home and business situations in advance of next winter by taking precautions such as ensuring tanks in the attic are properly lagged and that exposed pipes are insulated. During a freeze the following advice should be followed:

•  In the event of a pipe bursting, turn off the mains water supply. Make sure you know where the water mains supply valve is located. 
• Make sure that all overflow pipes, on water cisterns for instance, are adequate and can discharge freely to the drain system. 
•  Keep your home well heated to avoid burst pipes.  If you are away, leave the heating on low and open the attic door to let heat circulate if you are away from home.
•  For further information see www.iif.ie/consumerinformation