Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

My colleagues will come in with other questions. I will be brief but I have questions for other witnesses. Ms McGuinness from the Donegal Co-operative Livestock Mart gave us a very helpful table, which shows the dramatic increases in insurance in the past three years from 2015 to date. I see the cost of insurance for three of the marts in my constituency, namely, the Donegal, Stranorlar and Milford marts, all three of which experienced increases in excess of 100%. The increase for the Milford mart was 114% and yet it had no claims. It is difficult to see how this can be justified. Ms McGuinness mentioned that she had a meeting with an insurance company back in 2016 or 2017. What justification has Ms McGuinness heard from the industry in respect of the levelling of such increases? In particular, I wish to reference the response of the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, which in fairness to him would have been provided to him by Insurance Ireland and is provided in the supporting documentation. Insurance Ireland has advised that it is not aware of any recent major increases in the cost of insurance for agricultural mart owners.

That concerns me because if they do not think that a 100% increase over a three-year period is a major increase we have a problem with the insurance industry. How has the industry been able to justify such levels of increases?