Ms Dorothea Dowling:

I have given some statistics on that and the rate at which the frequency of accidents has reduced but it is three interlocking circles in that we have accidents, claims and then regulation of the insurance market. In slide No. 47 I have given the members some connections to an increase in profits being announced by these companies and projecting profits for 2017. Whatever has gone on in the past, it cannot go on forever because it seems that with regard to the suspicions some people had about restoring profitability, talking out of the other side of their mouths, they are actually telling shareholders and investors that they will be in profit or that in one place they are already in profit.

It is also ironic to be complaining about "passporting" insurers when some of the insurers who were based here have now shifted to head office in England, and they are "passporting" into Ireland. Brexit will be important for us. We have to look after ourselves. We have partners in England. If many insurance companies decided that they can no longer be located in England, and companies do not like uncertainty - they want to plan for tomorrow and next year - they will base themselves in Ireland to do the European market. We then have the potential to have many new players in this market, provided it is benign. Currently, however, we are sending out all the wrong signals to potential new entrants, and we are depriving them of the data which exists but is only available to members of the Irish Insurance Federation, and companies should not be obliged to join the federation in order to get the data. The Central Bank should have it. The overwhelming opinion of the insurers at the briefing I referred to was that it should be an independent body nominated by the Central Bank. I want to stress that it is all anonymous. I was questioning the methodology of something they said and they replied that they could not do any more than that because of data protection, which is not true. There are many exemptions under section 2 of the Data Protection Act. If someone is doing something that is required by legislation, by ministerial order, in the public interest such as prevention of crime, and there is an entire list of them, everybody seems to say, "Oh, data protection. We cannot do that". That is not true. There is no barrier to the collating of data. The 2005 Competition Authority report specifically states that there is an exemption under an EU regulation because in all types of insurance it is vitally important that there is not information asymmetry and that all the information is available publicly so that public policy as well as new entrants have access to it.