Mr. Peter Boland:

I will deal with those questions in order. With regard to commitments to reductions from the insurance companies, I agree absolutely. We have quite a list of reforms that we believe are necessary but we are very conscious of the amount of traffic going through the Oireachtas at the moment. We want to try to stay very focused. It is one of the top three items on our list. There is a considerable amount of work being done on this. An enormous amount of pain is being caused by insurance premiums. If we emerged at the end of this crisis with no reductions in insurance premiums to follow, it would have catastrophic consequences. It is essential at this stage that we obtain clarity from the insurers as to the benefits of all this work. I am conscious there have been developments since 2002 with regard to competition law and so on, so there may be complications. That is why we have asked the Department of Finance to address this issue. We have asked that it do so from a State point of view because the State is inextricably linked to the issue. Very often, we are legally obliged to have insurance, whether it is motor insurance or, in many cases, public liability insurance. As it is the State and organs of the State that are obliging us to have insurance, they cannot give the impression they are a third party on this issue. We are looking for this kind of commitment from the insurers via the State as quickly as possible.

On fraudulent claims, I am aware of the data mentioned by the Deputy. We welcome any clarity or transparency in this whole area. I am not here to speak on behalf of the insurers but my understanding from some insurance companies is that when they make what they call section 19 complaints on suspected insurance fraud, they are not yet being logged on PULSE. I have been told that by somebody anonymously. I cannot verify it one way or the other. I would be surprised by the low levels of fraud, as reported. The experience of our members is that fraud is a good deal more prevalent than the statistics indicate.