Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Not yet, but it is improving. What Mr. Redmond stated was interesting. When people arrive at an airport such as Knock - or any airport - they need car rentals, particularly if one wants to open up the Wild Atlantic Way. It is all connected, similar to the connection with the wider economy mentioned by Ms Murphy. Not only visitors are affected, as it is also a penalty on our returning diaspora, those whom we drove out of the country because they could not get jobs. We are penalising them through extortionate insurance rates.

The whiplash situation was mentioned. The number of 15,000 is interesting compared with some other countries, but what of Finland, which has a proper public health system? Is our situation connected with how much people would have to pay for private treatment, or have the witnesses examined this matter?

Under the proposal, certain injuries could be referred to the courts.

That may not work as intended as people ultimately have the right to go to court. If the Injuries Board was working in the way it was intended to work, we would not have that. In the area we can see how to get the Injuries Board working better to take up a higher percentage of this. The witness is absolutely correct that greater Garda enforcement and data collection is required. We have the PULSE system for that and there is exchange of information, so we should have the data there.

On the assertion that there are currently fraud rings operating, fraud is now treated as a theft offence. Is there a need for a specific offence in legislation around that? Should I ask the couple of other questions I need to ask?