Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for coming in and for his work to date in reforming the insurance business, which continues. I wish him well in his Department. A number of questions have come to mind. Insurance companies are in a good position to maintain good cash flow. What do they do with the cash on hand? Do they invest it in short-term investment proposals or is it held in reserve? What do they do with it?

My second question is on competition. As we know, competition can be positive or negative. If an insurance company is acting irresponsibly in the way it operates - and we have had occasions of that in the past - it may create competition but this may be negative competition in the sense that other insurers may wish to follow that example, with disastrous consequences. I wish to ascertain the degree to which it will be possible to eliminate over-reliance on unsavoury or unreliable competition. I will leave it at that for now, although I have a couple more questions to ask.