Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I will. Who is on the four sub-committees? The Minister of State said that he wanted to make sure they stuck to deadlines. What deadlines has he set?

The Minister has not spoken about the business model of the insurance companies despite the fact that the motion was agreed by all parties in the Dáil. An amendment of mine discussed the fact that the business model was one of the main reasons insurance premiums were increasing. It is a view shared by the Central Bank, which has provided the Department and me with figures relating to the fact that the investments made by insurance companies with the premiums they receive have decreased substantially in the past number of years. If one looks at the investment income attributable to the loss, one can see that in 2012 it was €278 million, but two years later it had dropped by €100 million. This is one of the reasons premiums are increasing. It is because they are not getting the return on safe investment - the likes of German bonds - that they were getting at 4% a few years ago. They are now zero rated. Could the Minister of State address that issue and why he has ignored the issue on the motion that asked him to look into this? Does he share the Central Bank's view in respect of this?

I find this very awkward and, for the record, it is not a good format. This is not the way to deal with questions and answers of this type.