Ms Dorothea Dowling:

I would give Deputy Doherty questions to ask of the Central Bank when it comes before the committee as the regulator because there was a stress test done on life insurance, or so we were told, back in 2009. Presumably, the companies passed that stress test in regard to claims reserves, etc. That seems to be reflected in the CSO. There was a bit of a hike as well. Back in 2009, we were all fine on the question of solvency. At an actuarial briefing in November 2013, on which I have given the committee slides, there was a survey among those who were there as to how many companies were ready to implement Solvency II. Only 13% of companies had it fully implemented. We are not talking about some little accounting thing that can be done overnight. It is raising capital and it is a long process. 40% of the companies in the survey had partially implemented it. How did we not know this was coming down the tracks? We had a stress test, or so it seems, by the Central Bank in 2009 and everything looked rosy. There is a real data question to put to the Central Bank. Remember that the extra requirements in Solvency II are not just the EU-imposed ones. As the MIAB stated in its report, the regulator in this country has a habit, in order to sleep well at night, of requiring much more than what the EU requires.

I am not sure if that is the case now, but it is a question that might be asked. Another question is of the €1 billion motor premium income, how much extra would have been required on that to bring it up to solvency? Is it an extra 30% or 40%? We then park that. It is a one-off. It will not happen again. They are bold boys. We must look now at the rest of them that we need to do something about rather than starting off by cutting victims' rights and doing many other difficult things that are probably doomed to failure.

My research shows that the rehabilitation system which was introduced in the United Kingdom in 1999 turned out to be a disaster because the medical professionals were arbitrating the system. There was as much fraud that way as any other, and that has been the experience in some parts of New Zealand as well with their no-fault system.