Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Tuesday, 1 October 2019

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation

Competition Law and Trade Associations: Discussion

Photo of Aidan DavittAidan Davitt (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses for their presentation. I will leave most of the questions relating to agriculture to my colleague, Deputy Cahill, who is our spokesperson.

My question relates to insurance. I am concerned about the insurance industry and its cartel-like actions. The CCPC has carried out a lot of good work on the industry and there have been a number of high-profile "stings", for want of a better word, on the back of it. Do the witnesses feel that price fixing in the insurance sector has been rampant? There have been investigations on the back of the CCPC report so there is no smoke without fire but will some serious sanctions come down the road for insurance companies? The commission is dealing with big businesses in places like London and countries like Germany. If they are doing it in Ireland, I am sure they are doing it in lots of other countries. Will there be some traction to squeeze these guys into some pain so that at the end of it, the customer might access cheaper insurance prices?

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