Mr. Kevin Thompson:

I will address the associate member question first and then comment on the wider data question. An associate membership fee for Insurance Ireland is €10,000 per annum but I qualify that by saying that we are a voluntary, non-profit organisation. That is the way we work. We know the associate member who was here this morning. When someone becomes an associate member, they have access to all our data. There is no blockage whatsoever.

In terms of the fee they are charged on top of that, we have databases so if they want to get a connection they pay an InsuranceLink set-up fee, which ranges between €2,000 and €4,000. It is a one-off fee. It does not go to us; it goes to our IT provider for connecting that service to them. They then pay an InsuranceLink usage fee. As I said earlier, InsuranceLink is about monitoring claims so every time someone accesses the system, it is on a pay-as-you-go basis. They get charged every time they access it. The charge will depend on one's usage. A very large player who has a large market share and who accesses the system frequently will pay a lot more proportionately than a very small player in the marketplace. We believe that is the right way to proceed.

A figure was quoted this morning of €100,000. That is not the figure. There was some confusion in that regard. That figure relates to our IIDS system. Regarding penalty points, what we have within our IIDS system currently is that our direct providers, that is, insurance companies, have access to it. We are building an enhanced module to it which will allow brokers to have access to it. That overall IT enhancement and development will cost approximately €100,000. That is the figure we have been given by our IT provider. That is in terms of associate member costs and the comment regarding €100,000 made this morning.

Regarding our databases such as ANPR, and particularly InsuranceLink, where we are trying to combat fraud, the system is only as good as the number of people in it. If someone who is trying to combat fraud has only have 50% of the market, they are only capturing 50% of potential fraudulent claims. They want as many providers as possible to be in that system. The more providers they have, the more robust the system in covering the entire market and catching potential fraudsters. It is in our interest, therefore, to have as many people as possible in that system.

I hope that clears up the point about the associate membership question.

On overall data and people having access to it-----