Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the consumer protection side, each of us gets a policy and because the trend has been for a massive increase in the past few years we might haggle and fight with the insurer who then brings the price down a bit. We feel marginally better because we successfully negotiated a €200 increase down to €180 and saved €20 but in fact we have paid €180 on top of what was there before. The policy is generally just a figure. Can the commission, wearing its consumer protection hat, ask or require motor insurance brokers, intermediaries, ultimately insurance companies, to break down the policy to show why we get the quote - for example, our age, the area we live in, car type, and discounts because we have not had a claim, because it is shared with another driver, or because there is an alarm or electric gates around the house? At the moment we do not know what bit is for the free windscreen cover and what bit is for the no-claims bonus. It is all very vague. Some computer programme somewhere must have baseline figures, showing 45 year old accountants do X and 22 year old students do Y, typically.

Obviously, they then factor in that so-and-so does this or that. We have seen older people being hit when, in fact, they drive less at night and on motorways and generally drive slower. We are being told this statistically and most people would generally agree with those assertions, yet their premiums seem to be being loaded, as are those of young drivers and, in some cases, rural drivers.

Is there EU legislation or other legislation that stops the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission from inquiring into this? The more information a consumer has, the better. People should know what they are paying for the windscreen or for protection of their no-claims bonus. Most of us fear changing policies because, even if we do not know what is in our policy, we know we have had it, and when changing, we do not know what we will lose. It is very difficult, even for those who are numerate and well educated, to compare prices given there are some 2 million people insured to drive in the country. With that hat on, what can the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission do to make it easier for people to interrogate various different quotes and pick the best quote for them?