Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

It does not say anything about the balance of probability or anything like that there. The onus is on the insurance company according to the legislation, which states, "A person shall be guilty of an offence if he or she has information which he or she knows or believes might be of material assistance in preventing the commission by any other person of a relevant offence or securing the apprehension, prosecution or conviction of any other person for a relevant offence." The word "person" in that context can refer to a company. A relevant offence is defined as fraud. Where a judge adjudicates that a claim is not valid and the insurance company representatives just go back to the office and continues working, the company in question has information that it knows or believes might be of material assistance in the prosecution or apprehension of an individual.

We need to be careful here because they are crimes, obviously. However, this needs to stop. We cannot have this revolving door system. There is also a responsibility on the Garda to impress on the insurance industry that it has a responsibility and that if it is not reporting those cases, it is committing an offence. The Garda needs to be willing to step up and prosecute the individuals or companies in that regard.