Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have a second question. One of the frustrations felt by some in the industry is that, in their view, the VHI holds unusually high reserves, which means it passes the overcompensation test. That is relevant to the levy. The belief is that it meets the criterion of keeping profits below 4% by moving an unusually high level of those profits into reserves. I believe that, given the history of insurance companies going into liquidation here, the more reserves companies have the better and I do not suggest the VHI should have lower reserves. However, it is relevant to the legislation because, by holding reserves which are significantly above the Solvency II levels, the VHI can manage its profit margin down and this has an impact on the rest of the industry. Can the Minister tell me if any of this was considered in the context of the Bill for this year?