Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Our report, as well as the Minister of State's report, is all about data, information and knowing what is going on. Equally it is about getting a handle on why there have been such increases. We have spent months here discussing it and published our report before the Minister of State's report came along. It is all welcome analysis but we still have the situation where expensive claims are still happening, as Senator Paddy Burke said. There is an element of fraud in that and equally there is an element of road safety. When this was discussed in the Seanad previously, it was stated that road safety is not part of the Minister of State's remit but ultimately, the fewer severe crashes there are the fewer payouts there will be. There will always be accidents but we hope that there will be fewer and fewer. The numbers in the Garda traffic corps have not been increased or been maintained in the way they had been previously. One can drive at the speed limit on any motorway in the country and other cars will still be flying past.

The use of technology, telemetry and tracking of vehicles exists and is probably very close to being commercially available or operationally viable. Is there emphasis on, or is there anything the Minister of State can do, to effectively reduce the number of crashes and the type of injuries that are being created? I am not trying to defend the insurance industry at all but clearly the more incidents and payouts there are, the more the rest of the 92% who are not making claims are paying for it. It is not the Minister of State's remit - he is not the Minister for Justice and Equality yet - but what can he do to try and reduce the number of claims and the severity of those claims? I acknowledge he is not driving the cars.