Mr. Peter Boland:

It is a very vulnerable time for those concerned. As I emphasised in the report, there is fear of alienating the only broker or underwriter now available or of bringing additional claims, reflecting poorly on oneself, personally or from a business point of view. I can guarantee members that behind the play centres is a queue of sectors that are very close to being in the same circumstances. I could list festivals, convenience stores, leisure centres, the entire adventure tourism industry, circuses and street artists. Nightlife in Ireland is being severely affected by this issue. Charitable groups are also affected.

On the point about the roadmap, it is abundantly clear that there has been enough analysis. There have been two exceptional reports, namely the cost of insurance working group report and the Personal Injuries Commission report. Both were kick-started by the report this committee produced at the end of 2016. That is enough analysis at this stage. We are well aware of what needs to be done. The problem we have concerns the pace of the action and the apparent lack of political reform. When there was a similar crisis in 2002–2003, there seemed to be political will to get work done. The establishment of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board involved incredibly complex work but it was done in less than two years. The Judicial Council Bill was introduced to the Oireachtas in 2017 and it is still slowly working its way through the Seanad, from where it must proceed to the Dáil. That suggests to us that the political will does not exist to resolve this. We find this extraordinary in the sense that this issue is solvable and the pathway exists. The Government and Oireachtas have many issues that are very difficult to resolve, including housing, healthcare, Brexit and all the other issues that are major distractions, but the issue of insurance is solvable. The pathway exists but the bit that is missing comprises the momentum and political will to get it sorted.