Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Why have they gone up by 15%? I am fed up of all this discussion. No one is actually telling us what is the real position. We have been around this. FBD is a good company and great employers. We had a wide spectrum of people in this morning. I know from dealing with it myself that insurance costs are only going one way. We have solicitors and barristers telling us awards have come down. Mr. Cahalan is telling us awards have gone up. Ordinary people are saying their insurance costs have gone up. We had an array of business people in this morning from the marts, the GAA, the motor industry and voluntary bodies. Every single one of them has seen a 20% increase in their premiums in the past 12 months. FBD has taken over in respect of the men's sheds and I hope something can be worked out there. Someone is not telling the truth on this. At the end of the day, we cannot have three or four different stories. The only result is the insurance premiums are going up. We are being told by representative bodies that insurance companies are trying to get a protocol that was in place back in 2003, to which IBEC agreed. That is 15 years old. As we have had no blue book since 2016, we do not know what the results are in terms of the relative costs. We have no protocol in place because there is a fight between the insurance industry and the Department of Finance as to what is agreed. The Garda fraud unit is not up and running. The insurance industry is looking for a revised book of quantum. My worry is we have less data available to us than we had previously yet we are looking for ways of reform. Mr. Cahalan and Mr. McMahon have a job to do for FBD. The problem is I am no wiser than I was two or three years ago. I am not a stupid man but I am no wiser. What is going on?