Ciarán Lynch (Cork South Central, Labour) | Oireachtas source

Let us say, for example, that I approached a broker in the morning, as I assume most people who took out Setanta insurance got it through a brokerage. To use Mr. Casey's own term of a safety net in the context of the absence of harmonisation across the European Union, depending on the insurance company with which one deals, that safety net is either closer to the ground or higher up. In the case of the latter, one will fall a lot further before one hits that safety net, given the area of regulation. Could a requirement be placed on the industry in this country - as something over which the State could have control as opposed to waiting for European regulation on harmonisation to happen - that a broker would inform a potential customer that the proposed safety net was different? I was obliged to deal with my car insurance yesterday and one rings around, one deals with the broker and one gets different quotations. One is trying to ensure one is getting the same deal at a cheaper price. However, were someone offering me a cheaper price with a different safety net, that would have me going back to the original quotation. Is there a requirement on the brokerage industry to tell potential customers that the safety net available with a product is less than that available with another product? Forget about the windscreen cover and all the rest, as this question pertains to the safety net in the event of the company going wallop. Is such a requirement in law in place at present for brokers?