Mr. Jerry O'Dea:

I am Jerry O'Dea and I am here in my capacity as secretary of the Vintners Federation of Ireland. It is not an executive position. I am also a publican in Limerick. To answer the question directly, there is not a major problem with claims being processed or contested, as Mr. O'Keeffe and Mr. Cribben have alluded to; our main issue seems to be public liability. There will always be problems with claims from property but that is not the big issue. I can give many anecdotal stories but they may not be relevant for today. In my case, for example, our business has been in the family for three generations. Up to two years or 16 months ago, we had been with the same major insurance company for 30 to 35 years. When it came to renewing the insurance policy, despite our not having made a claim in the previous 15 years, the company declined to quote for the business. Essentially, everybody was put into the one basket. As Mr. O'Keeffe mentioned, the company was just not interested in taking on any business in the area. This goes back to the public liability problem that exists.