Sean Barrett (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I have a final question on uncertainty about insurance. The JLT document mentions FBD which had a stock exchange warning and a massive collapse of its share price in the last number of weeks. Genworth had similar problems on 7 November. It was reported that a credit rating firm cut the company to junk on concerns about its long-term care insurance business, but it included this one. That is a problem I still have with it. In the literature brought to us this morning, there are two companies about which I would feel queasy from the public policy point of view - FBD and Genworth - because somebody somewhere is called upon to bail them out. If they were businesses that were not being bailed out, that is fine. Many businesses do go bankrupt but the financial sector specialises in beating a path to Government Buildings and we have to answer under the Constitution for how that money is spent. It is unusual for me, coming before the committee, to see warning lights flashing about some of the companies that are mentioned in our documentation.