Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 4 July 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Insurance Sector: Discussion

Photo of Rose Conway WalshRose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for coming in today and I commend them on that because there are others we would like to come in here but who have not done so. The most useful thing to come out of today's meeting relates to causation and fraud. If one sees somebody commit a crime, whether an assault or otherwise, one will report it to the Garda Síochána. What makes insurance fraud any different? We see from the numbers that fraud is a minute number so we need to take it off the table. We need transparency. We have been working on this for approximately three years to try to get to the bottom of things and achieve transparency. The messages we get all the time, depending on who is before us, is "Do not look here, we need you to look there." The media have a role to play in terms of the headline figures and in investigating, in drilling down, like my colleague, Deputy Pearse Doherty, did this morning, and obtaining actual facts and not headline figures. I think our session this morning has been useful.

I agree with Ms Muldoon's comments on profits. There is nothing whatsoever wrong with any company making a profit. That is what companies do, profit maximisation. There is no problem with that whatsoever, but the industry has to take cognisance of the very many businesses, some operating for generations, the insurance industry has pushed out of business. The mental and financial stress that these small businesses have had to go through because of the significant premiums, although it is not the only contributing factor, imposed on them by Government in the first instance because insurance is compulsory and by insurance companies which set the premiums without any explanation as to why they have to pay the amount. We have said right from the beginning, in terms of the mistakes of the industry, the consumers are the collateral damage.

If one is looking at a 50% profit, people do not expect to get a 50% increase in their wages in one year. It is too much and too soon and it is not reflected in the premiums. I welcome the fact the witnesses said that when they look at the profits for next year, they will be directly reflected in the reduction in insurance premiums. I want to ask each of the witnesses about the deferred tax assets. How much can each company right down in those profits? I want to establish how much tax each company pays on the profits it makes. How much can each company write off in tax for deferred assets?

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