John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I will come to Deputy Quinlivan in a moment because I know he has a question, but before I do, I want to ask about the insurance business. We read in the newspapers how insurance premiums have dropped and savings of 20% and 25% are available now. That is nonsense. There have been cases where, for example, public liability insurance on a little pub in Carlow went up to €22,000 per year. The person who owns it has to get it insured outside the country and pay the first €5,000 of whatever claim might be made.

It is very difficult to deal with the spin that is put on this story by the industry when it is compared with reality. People turn to the consumer protection arm of the Central Bank to get the real story, to understand what is really happening in the industry. That is what people are looking for now.

I was disappointed with the make-up of the new board under Mr. Justice John Hedigan because one of the things we learned during the whole tracker issue was that the banks will rush to stack the case, or stack the house, against the individual. It is a rigged deck of cards and that applies to the insurance companies as much as it does to the banks. This new board is paid for by the banks and, looking at the membership of that board, and with all due respect to every single one of them, it is weighted heavily to the side of the banks. The consumer is not represented in the significant way I had expected. If the aim is to change the culture within banks, I would like to see this particular board giving up ownership of it and allowing access to people who are critical and who have a role to play in bringing about the transparency that is needed. Such people should be central to that board. The banks are watching over and holding ownership of the board in a way I do not like. I would prefer if we did not have the usual suspects on all of these committees and boards. How will the Central Bank engage with them, or will it engage with them?