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

There are two elements to that question. I am conscious of the areas to which the Senator is referring regarding particular sectors of the economy having had a major problem getting insurance and no insurance being available to them. That issue was satisfactorily resolved by a company, and brokers had to go abroad to get the insurance policy. The particular issue was dealt with. The Senator might note my earlier comment that this is the problem with insurance in Ireland. We have only one Irish insurance company. I am sure more than 80% of all insurance policies written in Ireland are written by foreign companies. As I said, I have met the eight largest insurance companies operating in Ireland. Only one, FBD, is Irish owned. The rest of them are foreign multinationals. The issue the Senator highlighted of a person having to get cover from a foreign insurance company is what happens in the case of 85% of all insurance policies in Ireland. That is an issue with which we need to deal.

I highlighted that the history of Irish insurance companies has not been good. All we need do is note what happened with Quinn Insurance. We are now paying a levy to pick up the cost of that. There was a levy for PMPA insurance which went bust several years ago. That levy might still not be fully paid. We are picking up the cost of that, and prior to that the Insurance Corporation of Ireland also went bust. Three major Irish insurance companies have gone bust. That is not a good track record for any country to have. We have only one Irish insurance company left. We are relying on foreign multinational insurance companies to provide insurance cover for almost everything in Ireland. I want increased competition in that area to increase what is available.