Michelle Mulherin (Mayo, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses. On the insurance side, I have attended public meetings and we have had representatives of the Revenue Commissioners here on this issue. Many people have fallen between two stools and they have described the cost of repairing one or even two vehicles but we should be clear about the messages we send to people, and that includes the representatives present from the insurance industry. As politicians we often say that the insurance company should be doing this but some of the conversations I have heard at public meetings are misleading people because they give the impression that the company will cover a policy even where there is an exclusion clause, the cover is third party only or there is some other reason people are not covered. Yet, it must be clearly specified as an item of cover within the policy for the company to provide cover. That is the reality.

In some instances the insurance company is doing what it is legally entitled to do. My issue is where insurance companies have been dragging their heels for months and not making a call on whether they will indemnify under a policy where it has been established that petrol stretching took place. I am aware of such cases and I believe it is wrong. We have to accept that the insurance company is within its legal rights to make a call on a policy but when we go beyond that we are talking about a fund to which they may contribute, such as the uninsured motorists' fund.

Every time we have a conservation, no more than the conservation we have had with the Revenue Commissioners telling us that they are testing fuel, and so on, it gives people hope that something will come out of the investigations. We know there are huge problems in respect of petrol stretching. It is also an issue for the Consumers Association of Ireland.

It would seem that Customs and Excise has paper trails, but it does not have forensic evidence. The damage happens after the fact. The issue is a matter of quality control. We need to be clear about the fund that is mooted. Will it be a one off sum of money to deal with petrol stretching for a defined period?. Is it envisaged that it will be generated from a levy on insurance policies? I would like to think that consumers should be able to buy petrol at a forecourt, without discovering months later that their engine has been destroyed. There is no evidence that the petrol has been tampered with because of the time-lag in the discovery of the damage to the engine. Clearly the problem is that there is no evidence.

There needs to be quality control. The problem does not begin at the filling stations as I suggest the money is made by the distributors. It is in the distributors' interest that there is consumer confidence in the product. Consumers face a crisis in confidence in where they can buy fuel. That is a very strange scenario in our consumer driven society - that people cannot be assured of the quality of a product.

How much engagement have people had with the organisation? How many people have not been compensated? The issue of public liability was raised. Clearly motorists are going to their insurers and asking them to pay out on their individual insurance policy. The problem is with the product sold by the retailer but it could be caused further up the supply chain. It is important that we establish how many people have been compensated under the filling station's public liability insurance. An impression was given previously that things would be put right under their insurance. We know that there is a requirement to provide evidence to claim under any insurance policy. Clearly, there is a lack of evidence.

People have been left high and dry. There are false dawns about what we can do, when notwithstanding all the investigations that have gone on, it would be very difficult for anybody to pursue this in a court of law, owing to lack of evidence and problems with the chain of evidence.

We must be very clear about what can be done and how this problem will be dealt with in the future. At a previous meeting with the Revenue Commissioners I suggested we should have an independent body, funded by the distributors, responsible for quality control, in order that in the future people can be assured of the quality of the fuel. The representative of the Consumers Association of Ireland suggested that consideration be given to the establishment of a fund to be created from levies paid directly by the industry and from which compensation can be managed and paid. Is he suggesting a once-off fund or the creation of a fund going forward? I presume he is not suggesting a fund going forward because this is an issue that we clearly have to hit on the head.