Mr. Gary Dunne:

I thank the Senator for her questions. They are multifaceted and as such I will answer some and let Mr. Mulligan address others. The first question was on the CSO collecting data. From some perspectives, that could actually be quite a good thing. One of the things I referenced earlier was potential competition law concerns. While I do not speak as a lawyer, it is a difficult area. We would have to ensure that there were no issues there. If the Central Statistics Office was able to collect data and make it freely accessible, the Society of Actuaries would consider that fantastic. The society does not want to collect data itself. That is not what we are about. In practical terms, to carry out the analysis that has been done in other countries requires a vast volume of data. The Central Statistics Office is used to dealing with individual points. To do a proper statistical analysis, one would seek to get a great deal more data. Again, I said that is something the Society of Actuaries is happy to contribute to in terms of the design but the question of who collects it is one on which we are fairly agnostic. It is more that it should be collected and we should have an annual analysis. The design is crucial to ensure that we find out what the key components are. There are many anecdotes around why insurance prices are going up and that is the reason we need a committee. There are too many anecdotes and not enough evidence. It is really about striving for evidence, obtaining which is the only way we are going to know.

I do not know how one would characterise our relationship with Insurance Ireland.

It is friendly. We do not have a formal or informal relationship with it. We meet it on occasion but there is no real need for interaction between our two bodies. We are doing different things. We are a voluntary body - primarily a professional body for actuaries - so there is no real relationship there, but we will happily meet it and discuss any issues as they arise.

The Senator asked a question about independence. One of the things actuaries would very much pride themselves on is the ability to be independent. One of the society's tenets is to contribute independently to debate, and it does that wherever it can. That is evident from our sister entities in other jurisdictions. In the UK there is a very comprehensive and detailed analysis, done from an independent perspective, to show what the factors are and to show the impact of changes, such as the legal reforms I mentioned which halved legal costs. That brings transparency such that if premiums did not drop to allow for this, the market sees that. That is happening on an ongoing basis. Actuaries would very much pride themselves on their ability to act independently and to provide an independent voice in those circumstances.