Frank O'Rourke (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I wish to raise a number of issues. Were I sitting at home watching this on Oireachtas TV, I would be as disheartened a member of the public as I am a politician. It is disappointing for people who have experience of this matter every day of the week. As has been stated by the Chair, we know the problems. No one disagrees that the situation is unacceptable. What must we do to bring it under control? The increase in premiums is not sustainable.

Year on year, we are considering how to give more back to people in their net incomes, for example, by removing people from the USC net, giving tax breaks and so on, in order to compensate them for the difficult years through which they have gone. However, there is no point in trying to improve people's quality of life if an insurance company or the like is waiting to take 40% more from them. We must ensure that something is done and that this committee is not just a talking shop. A solution must be delivered for those who need reduced premiums.

When Mr. Faughnan and his colleagues from the AA attended this morning, I mentioned that much needed to be done if we were to make the situation more transparent, accountable and better. I will discuss the MIAB in a moment. We have been told that books of quantum, data and so on need to be put in place. I accept that. This morning, Mr. Faughnan agreed with me that all of this information did not vanish off the cliff in the past two or three years. The need for better regulation, data and accountability has probably always been there. This situation has not just happened, but the premiums at the time were not increasing as drastically as they have been in the past three years. We should not be looking for excuses or reasons in this forum for justifying the increases. They are not acceptable. End of story. We should be doing everything possible to make the system more transparent and accountable so as to ensure that this issue does not continue, but we should not be using the situation as a reason for the 40% increases of the past year or two. There is no excuse for that.

This morning, I used the term "cartel". I have no problem using it. I am not accusing anyone of operating a cartel, but one could be forgiven for believing that there is a cartel. Competition has been mentioned, but there is none. As is the case with every other public representative, constituents attend my clinics weekly or I speak with people on the street. I know from them and personally that there is no competition. One shops around insurance companies and the difference in premiums is €30, €40 or €50. It is not worth the hassle of changing a direct debit. Competition does not exist.

The Chair asked what more could the MIAB do now, but when it was in place, it stopped premiums increasing at such a rate. This has been pointed out to me by a number of legal and general experts in the business. According to them, bringing the MIAB back into play would be of assistance. The same issues obtained while it existed, but the increases were not as out of control as they have been in recent years. I am substituting for my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, who is trying to have the MIAB re-established because he believes that it would have some worth. Given Mr. Jewell's comments to Senator Conway-Walsh, he probably thinks the same.

We are discussing out-of-control 40% increases in premiums, but companies are also cherry-picking. If cars have valid NCT certificates, it means that they are roadworthy irrespective of whether they are five, ten or 15 years old. A certificate of a standard, it deems to the best of the tester's ability a car as being roadworthy until the next test. In roadworthiness terms, it is as good as a car that has just come out of a garage, having undergone a forensic test, but insurance companies are being allowed to refuse to consider it because it is X years old. That is scandalous.