You may or may not be aware of them, but from time to time earthquakes occur in Ireland. Their frequency is rare and their impact is minimal but did you know that almost all insurance policies cover them?

On Tuesday and Wednesday the 26th and 27th of January this year Donegal was hit by two minor quakes measuring 1.5 and 1.7 respectively on the Richter scale.  This brought the number of quakes in Donegal in January to 3! Quakes in Ireland are nothing new, in 1984, an earthquake hit Dublin which measured 5.5 on the Richter scale. This is the largest ever recorded in Ireland. The aftershocks from this quake measured up to 4 on the Richter scale.

The recent events in Donegal were very mild in comparison and according to the School of Cosmic Physics in the Dublin Institute of Advanced Studies these mild quakes are no indication of a build up to any major event. In fact, most quakes in Ireland are due to the settling and easing of  faulted rock stress and are in no way related to fault lines.

So why are we writing about this here? Well, we just want to let you know, while the topic is in the news, that no matter how unlikely it may be, that if you were ever to experience damage to your property from an earthquake, you are more than likely to be covered.

Take a look at you policy document under the heading – WHAT YOUR POLICY COVERS, and there you will find it;

1) Fire, Explosion, Lightening, Earthquake and Thunderbolt.

Don’t say we never told you.