Mr. Gary Dunne:

Absolutely. There are definitely competing models and other countries have gone down different routes. The UK has not. The Deputy mentioned them as a direct comparative. The UK has not and it obviously feels that competition is the best way forward. One thing I would like to emphasise is that models like that can hide underlying issues. It takes a long time for these issues to surface. Take the example of paying on the price of the pump if one decides to increase the price of petrol or diesel to allow for third-party liability motor insurance costs. The rationale is that the more one drives, the more likely one is to have an accident. That seems fair. However, if there are underlying issues such as inefficiencies in the market in terms of dealing with claims, be they legal, expenses, medical or whatever it may be, they are hidden for a while because it is just the price of the pump and it is spread across absolutely everybody. Therefore, it is a bit harder because it is not being allocated back to the people. There are definite positives to an approach like that but also negatives as well. As long we consider both of them, we can make an informed choice.