Pearse Doherty (Donegal South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I wish to pose a final question. I am of the view that the Central Bank was extremely lax in respect of this matter. Mr. Sheridan can bat for his own side in a moment in respect of that assertion on my part. It seems that the only flag that was raised for consumers came in the form of the widely-circulated press release. On numerous occasions we asked the Minister what he was doing to ensure that customers would not be at a loss as a result of the decision taken in January. It does not appear that the Central Bank took any serious action to protect customers from having their policies renewed by an institution which the Malta financial services authority had directed to stop renewing them. Was the Central Bank aware of the fact that policies were being renewed after the 24 January cut-off point? What action is it taking in respect of the renewal of those policies? Is the Central Bank of the view that it was appropriate that the policies in question were renewed? The Irish Brokers Association has referred to a statutory instrument and stated that its members issue renewal notices prior to renewal dates. This means that if a notice was issued on 23 January last and even though it had been informed that it could not do so from the following day, Setanta still renewed the relevant policy five weeks and six days later. That is what happened to many people who renewed their policies and paid their premiums in full. Those people subsequently were without insurance cover, which means that they lost out on the double. What action has the Central Bank taken - or is it going to take - in respect of that practice?