Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy. We just touched on this with his colleagues on the committee around getting the right data. In our emerging recommendations, which will be finalised in December, we will be doing this through legislation. The working group has found it difficult to get the information we want from the industry, in so far as trying to drill down into some of the problem areas, including the one raised by the Deputy at the committee. After our engagement we went to industry with a request for different types of information, not just the type of information Deputy Doherty was looking for, but also the information I was seeking. Commitments were made, about which the industry was completely genuine, and there was desire by the industry to work with us. When we actually tried, however, to get that information, it was not as forthcoming as I had hoped. Different reasons were given around data protection, commercial sensitivity and whether or not information given to a working group in the Department of Finance can be subject to a freedom of information request and what that might mean. On that point, I take the industry on good faith, but it indicates the very serious need for us to make sure that, through legislation, we are able to grab all the data we need and in the right manner for publication. That is why we have a recommendation that speaks to the national claims database or register. It is also why one of our recommendations for the future is that whenever there is an increase on premiums at renewal, the increase would have to be explained to the consumer. There would have to be something behind that and it would not just be an automatic increase when driver behaviour had not changed. That is what we are working to, and while I do not want to repeat myself, I have already said that data is the key to all this. We need to make sure that the type of data we are looking for is clear in legislation and that the data can be given.

As the committee is aware, there are insurance companies operating in Ireland that are also operating in other countries. They are giving that type of data elsewhere for publication but they are not doing it here. The industry says it is trying to, and that it going to, but it is not happening quickly enough. I want the Government or an independent body to be in charge of it and to have ownership of the matter. That is where we are heading and where our work should be going.