Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank Mr. Boland for his presentation. Together with Deputies Tom Neville and Niall Collins, I was instrumental in inviting him to appear before the joint committee. Deputy Niall Collins is no longer a member of the committee, having taken up membership of another committee. I offer apologies on his behalf. Unfortunately, Deputy Tom Neville has to attend another committee meeting that clashes with this one. He wanted to be present and it is not a sign of disrespect on his behalf that he is not present.

I attended a meeting the alliance organised in Limerick and while I had heard everything raised previously, I was struck by the number of people who were outlining the same problems with the cost of insurance, the lack of reasoning for premium increases and why there were so expensive, that there was no transparency and that claims could not be stood over following rigorous investigation in many cases. Have jobs been lost due to insurance premium increases businesses have experienced in the past few years, particularly in the past year? Is it a problem for both SMEs and larger companies? I acknowledge that it is also a problem for community groups. Has the Government done enough to deal with hikes in insurance costs? What could it do today if it were to take action on the problems raised by the alliance? What are the barriers to addressing them? If Mr. Boland was Minister, what are the three principal actions he would take? Towards the end of his contribution he referred to the lack of transparency. What information is not being available by insurers to premium holders? Should the Central Bank be responsible for analysing a report on the national claims information database data?