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

I want to wait for the Central Bank report. That was a judicious statement by that lady on television the other night. In that market there are winners and losers. The winners are the people who shop around and get the best price. The losers are the people who lose out financially by not shopping around and they probably pay more than they should.

We are looking at the option of banning dual pricing as that might change the situation. There may be winners in that case, but we also want to make sure people will not lose out.

It is like everything else. One can drive down the road and get fuel in one filling station at one price but at a different price in another filling station a mile down the road. A level of competition between companies in a given area of activity on the same product is valid and helpful. It gives consumers choice if they shop around. Having said that, not everybody goes to the filling station that sells the cheapest fuel. If that was the case, none of the more expensive ones would do business. People make choices on a number of bases, one of which is the price of the insurance. In some instances, people might be happy with the personnel they have dealt with in the company or the service they have received. It may be the case that they had claims years ago which were looked at satisfactorily. Quality of service comes into it as well; it is not just a matter of the price of the product. Price is a major element in people's decisions but the quality of the product is also important, as is the small print because there can be several exclusions.

When looking at the issue of dual pricing and at introducing legislation to deal with it, we must ensure everything is on an equal footing because we do not want people to lose out financially. That is why I want to see the detailed information from the Central Bank before a decision is made. My instinct tells me we should wait for the detailed information so that we will be better informed to have the debate we are now having rather than making changes to legislation without the benefit of the full information.