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

I thank the Senator. Improving the availability of data has been a key challenge for a number of years. We have really tried to get our hands on them since last year.

I will speak directly to the points we have set out in the action plan. I refer to objective No. 2. We have decided that it will take a little time to establish a national claims information database and have three action points that set out how we will to go about it. Action point No. 22 is to obtain specific key aggregated metrics for immediate publication and to commence the development of a national claims information database. We are aiming to put in place the legislation by the fourth quarter and have the database established by the second quarter of next year. I did not want to have to wait that long to start receiving information from the insurance companies. They were feeding information to us during the process of putting a report together. What is happening and what has begun is that, together with the Society of Actuaries in Ireland and Insurance Ireland, we are putting together metrics that we can publish quarterly until the national information claims database goes live. I have seen a change and believe it is a positive in terms of the information being supplied, but it will not be perfect. Once we have in place a national claims information database hosted by the Central Bank, it will be a strong, robust system, but we want to obtain relevant, pertinent information as quickly as possible. Therefore, it will not be complete, but it will I hope be enough to represent a start in the revealing of transparency. We hope that in itself will have an important effect on the market also.