Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have listened carefully to the Senator. I am here to give an update and to hear the committee's views. Members have made clear that we all have a common interest in this. The Senator is clear that if one notifies an insurance company of a potential claim, it marks it on the book as a potential claim and makes a provision for it, stating that it might cost €6,000 whenever it comes to settled. It is marked against the policyholder and the company makes provision for it. If that potential claim never materialises into an actual claim, is there a write-back or clawback for the extra increase? I am conscious of that and will take it up with the insurance companies and Insurance Ireland. It would seem fair if a company makes a provision on the basis of something happening. Banks do it all the time, making a provision for loans in financial statements. If it reassesses the provision a year later and finds that it was too generous, it will write it back and it will go back into the system. The same should happen here, with insurance companies writing back provisions they make and passing it on to the customer.

The Senator mentioned the situation with regard to video evidence. I do not know the answer to that but we will look at it. Businesses can be defenceless if somebody waits for a significant period before making a claim, at which time there will be no video evidence in place to prove otherwise. While that legislation has good points, it has downsides related to these issues. While I am sure other people will have a different view, if the law provides a certain period in which a person can make a claim, logic would say that the person against whom the claim has been made should have an equal right to be able to defend himself or herself for the same period by having CCTV available. I am not giving that commitment but I am saying that logic suggests that it should be looked at. It is an issue that we will have to take up with the Data Protection Commissioner, the Department of Justice and many people in wider society. It is not fair that one side of litigation can be disadvantaged by not having access to information that it had but was required to destroy, or is not allowed to use in a case to defend itself. I take the Senator's points and we will look into it.