Mr. Dermott Jewell:

The Deputy is entirely right in everything he says. I apologise to anybody watching this if I am affecting an already disastrous day which has seen difficulty with transport. The committee has heard from Mr. Faughnan and the brokers' side. We can look at everything that is going on. We have a small market, as the Deputy mentioned, with the big five working down and out to the brokers, with an underlying few companies from other member states.

We must discuss who is settling the claims. Many of the claims, either sold through a broker or one of the main companies, are sorted by the insurance company. The person is asked not to accept liability but to leave it to the companies. There is a problem in there somewhere. The companies resolve the problems and make significant payouts to the great detriment of people who have already paid a very significant level of insurance premiums over years and who will then be guaranteed to pay an ever-increasing premium for four, five or six years until what was paid for a claim is ultimately discharged. The people have no say, hand, act or part in the process. Very many people might argue they did not cause an accident, although they would acknowledge problems. They should have some say but there is no opening for that. It is an issue that should be examined to start with.

Mr. O'Rourke is right in that one way of getting the data - perhaps a short cut - is to go to the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission and say that we believe a cartel is operating and it should prove otherwise. It must have access to data to do so. Perhaps it is a way of short-circuiting or moving that rapidly forward.