Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I take that on board. I am not suggesting that the companies are not solvent - ensuring they are is the Central Bank's responsibility - but the Irish people are on a rollercoaster ride. Individuals are being forced off the road and into parking up their cars. Businesses have not been able to expand because of the dramatic increase in insurance premiums. It is because of this boom-bust cycle of premiums going high, low and then high again. There does not seem to be a proper approach to ensuring that premiums are based on risk. If they were, they would not have been able to dip to an unsustainable level and they would not be where they are now. Customers are the ones dealing with it. There is a big difference between a 40% increase in a premium and a 2% increase year on year over a longer period.

I wish to ask about investment income. I thank the Central Bank and Ms Cronin for writing to me earlier this year in respect of this matter. Investment income has created a major loss for insurance companies that, in previous years, made up the loss in underwriting from investment returns. I commend the Governor, Professor Philip Lane, on calling on insurance companies not to chase risky investment. That was prudent. According to the IMF report, investment income in 2015 was down by two thirds compared to 2011 and, as a result, motor insurance premiums in particular increased by 20% in some cases last year. The IMF has made a direct link between the fact that quantitative easing has resulted in bond yields dropping to negative territory in some cases and low rates in others compared with where they were previously and insurance companies - having taken significant losses on their books - trying to make up for those losses in underwriting. Is this Dr. Roux's view?

The committee has heard about a number of factors that might address the rising cost of premiums, for example, insurance claims, the courts and the book of quantum that we debated yesterday, etc. Where do investment losses, as a factor of the increased premiums, stack relative to the other factors that have been mentioned heretofore?