Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Since our private session yesterday morning, where I asked about it in reference to the IBEC contribution, every committee member who has spoken has asked whether there is an opportunity to broaden this set of sessions to business insurance and insurance generally. I am getting restaurateurs, publicans and hoteliers all saying that their insurance costs are increasing massively, which has nothing to do with their claims history, any incident, reckless behaviour or health and safety issues. It is just that these costs are arriving and there is almost nothing one can do about it. One shops around and, as Deputy O'Rourke said, one might get €50 off, but that is not what a lot of people would regard as normal competition. That is the frustrating thing. The point I took from Mr. Fielding is that the MIAB is very important, but equally it is about the data and what we do not see or know.

We have anecdotal stories about investment performance or otherwise. We have stories about solvency levels having to be brought up to new rules and therefore they are trying that. We have various other things about the overheads of insurance companies, sponsorship of various other things and marketing budgets which are out of control. We are told that is where it is all going. Then there are the legal costs. We mentioned yesterday when the Minister was here the idea of a care-not-cash model, and he was saying that it sounded very innovative, which I think it does, but the argument from the legal profession may be that it moves the money from the legal profession to the medical profession. I am not sure I am convinced of that. Equally, Mr. Fielding mentioned 300%. Why do we have whiplash awards of €15,000 here versus £5,000 in the United Kingdom, while it is virtually nothing in mainland Europe? That is what we are being told. Certainly, we need data. The Minister and his working group are investigating things we are not involved in and will bring stuff back to the committee. We just do not know if there are profits or profit gouging, with supernormal profits being made here, or whether it is genuinely the case that settlements are much more expensive than they were. The committee really needs anonymised, aggregated data from all of the players. We heard earlier that there are 24 players, of which 11 are based in Gibraltar. Equally, we heard this morning that there are really only five main players in the motor insurance business.

I note to Ms Callan that a book of quantum is really only going to be of benefit if it is somewhat binding. If it is just there and one can have regard to it or, equally, ignore it, I do not know how much value it can have. There is a concern that it will normalise what is currently abnormal, and that is a very important point. On competition, we heard this morning from various sources that people are more likely to be leaving this market than coming into it. We do not seem to have a great record right back to PMPA and, more recently, Setanta. One could include Quinn Insurance in that bundle of companies that sold stuff apparently cheaply. If one did not have a claim that was fine, but if one claimed, it was not resolved as satisfactorily as one might have liked.

What I took away from the IBEC contribution was its legal costs and that that is the emphasis it would like to put on the issue. Was Dr. Gillen indicating he would like to come in on that point?