Mr. Peter Boland:

The Senator asked some very comprehensive questions, which I will deal with in the round by focusing primarily on the voluntary and community sector. Our membership is not homogenous. Different circumstances face different sectors but, certainly, when the voluntary and community sector interacts with the State, the State often imposes very onerous responsibilities regarding the level of indemnity and cover required in order to interact with it. That applies not just to service providers but also to sectors such as festivals, for example. If they want to use public land, they have to indemnify local authorities up to, in some cases, a level of €13 million to get access to public ground. A significant insurance cost is involved, therefore, in engaging with the State. I mentioned the obligatory element of insurance in my opening statement. It is not a straightforward market, and considerable power is given to insurers because we are obliged to interact with them. This is a major issue from the point of view of the voluntary and community sector. As for how onerous it is in regard to issues such as the cutting-down of trees or the removal of play areas, this is not something that happens elsewhere. It is quite unique to Ireland.

On the question about duty of care, there are many moving parts to this and they have been identified for some time. We are, by and large, in agreement with the current action plan on insurance reform. A core number of reforms therein, including the judicial guidelines and reforms relating to duty of care, are central to getting this resolved, but all the moving parts will have to be addressed to ensure not only that we reduce the cost of insurance now but that it will remain low because we do not want to have to appear before the committee again in ten years and announce there is another crisis. We want it to be resolved now and for the long term.

From the point of voluntary and community in particular, I am concerned that when this reform process is over, there will remain sectors that cannot get cover. The State, whether it likes it or not, will have to consider what to do with certain sectors. Certainly, the Department of Finance is not very enthusiastic about engaging on that right now because it is very focused on the broader issues that apply to the entire market, but the State is going to have to consider the issue in due course.

If we believe a service or organisation is of value to the State, but it simply cannot get going, that has to be considered.

The Senator commented on risk. I suspect that when it comes to pricing policies and liability, the direct relationship between risk and the pricing of insurance has been broken. One often gets a sense from members that it is more about ability to bear prices. Turnover is discussed, even where turnover does not increase the risk. If the average spending in an organisation is increasing, turnover also increases. It will still affect the cost of insurance. As with the example I gave, if an organisation goes from having two underwriters to one, then the price almost automatically goes up. That is an accepted fact at this stage. It is clearly nothing to do with risk. It is just about competition.