Aidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Are Senator Reilly and Deputy Kelleher satisfied with those replies? From my point of view, I fall into many of the categories the witnesses are representing in that I have a child in a crèche. I am chairman of quite a large GAA club and I have a small to medium business so I know from first hand the problems facing the sector.

This committee has heard that the main costs of doing business are rates and insurance. I do not think the increase in rates would have put anybody out of business but the increase in insurance premiums has certainly put people out of business, including people who had good businesses and who had been in business for a long time. What insurance companies are charging is a chronic problem and some of those who come up with figures on which to base policy must have friends in the insurance industry. Some of the numbers seem to have been taken out of the telephone book and the increases in insurance premiums are incredible.

There has been an in-depth investigation of the insurance industry. Did the witnesses' findings lead them to believe there was collusion within the insurance industry and by insurance companies?