Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I warmly welcome the commission's move to call the industry in on the signalling of the price increases in the future. The announcement during the week of the commission doing so will be reflected in the market - I suppose I do not share the commission's thoughts on that - and that is a positive step already. The commission is a key actor in what we are trying to get to the bottom of here and how we are trying to bring down prices. In order to be able to assess whether the main driver of the increases is down to risk association and analysis of the risk or, as we suspect, because of the compliance with next year's changes, which is what we are trying to get to the bottom of, one needs the raw data and that raw data will have to be supplied to the commission. I would see the commission's role evolving and becoming more pertinent as time goes on. Can the commission confirm that it wrote to Insurance Ireland in October last on the same issue? What was its response and what follow-up did the commission carry out?

If Mr. Kenny does not mind, I will ask a couple of questions in sequence. Is this week's statement about calling in the industry part of an ongoing investigation or is it the start of a new one? What powers are open to the commission if it finds evidence of cartelism? Can the commission do anything more than give it a slap on the wrist? Does the commission have a checklist against which to check an industry's behaviour to determine what constitutes a cartel?