Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If Mr. Cahalan has the figures and is happy to submit them to us, we would appreciate them as a committee because we want to go back to the Minister of State and give a reason. I take the point totally on low prices and low claim payouts, and on high prices and high claim payouts. The circle has to squared, or whatever way one wants to put it. However, most of us drive the same car and do not make any claims. We over-labour the point on motor insurance because we are hearing about many other issues but we just feel our premiums are going up and up. The industry says it is not making a great deal of money, or has not been making any for a period, but somebody is making money out of this, whether it is the lawyers or the claimants. Clearly, some people are genuinely injured and discommoded by their accidents but it seems to be the case that there are many more not in that category. I would really like to hear from the delegates what the problem is in motor insurance terms. Is there a concentration of incidents in a particular part of the country? Are they related to a particular age group? What is causing all the accidents? The delegates are saying only approximately 20% of them are fraudulent. Maybe 10% are getting through and 10% are not. Maybe that is a figure for the industry overall but it is a lot of accidents. Is there a way of reducing the number of those accidents? Drink-driving is probably not the factor that it was. Is it speed?