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

The action plan on insurance reform is a whole-of-government approach, led by the Tánaiste, and involves a number of Government Departments. We have been talking specifically about a report by the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage that is coming out in the near future, which will help us on the insurance side.

In recent weeks, we published the third implementation report, which is on the public record. I am sure the committee may have a copy of it. It was issued in recent weeks. More than 90% of the action measures the Government can do have been done. There are two pieces of legislation to go through the Oireachtas, hopefully between now and Christmas. Then, for some of the measures we put in, there is a timeline between the Government completing its action plan and what happens next. Normally, what happens next is that there is often a judicial challenge to some of the actions we have taken in terms of the new guidelines and new legislation and award levels. That has to work its way through the courts. When there is certainty in the courts about what the Oireachtas has done, we then see a reduction in premiums across the board because of the better risk appetite the insurance companies have when they see these measures in place. Some of that has already happened in motor insurance but it is taking a little bit longer on the business insurance side because the legislation is only being finalised in the Oireachtas this month.

The main issue existed when I came into this job. I know people will say there were issues in insurance long before Brexit. Brexit absolutely exacerbated the problem, however, because most of the insurance in this sector was coming from the UK. Once the UK decided to leave the EU, the insurance companies could not sell from London into Ireland or any EU country anymore. We were left with a gap way worse than we ever had before Brexit happened. When I met the insurance companies, they said that because of the high cost of claims in Ireland, which we all know about with courts trying to deal with exaggerated cases, there is uncertainty about the court awards. All the insurance companies bar one here are foreign multinational companies. Everyone present knows their names. They said there is so much uncertainty in the Irish market because they could never predict what award levels will be in the courts. New companies had no interest in coming into Ireland.

The Industrial Development Authority, IDA, has in recent months seen what the Government has done and has put together a fantastic programme. It has approached 20 insurance companies from Europe, the United States and even the Southern Hemisphere on a one-by-one basis to say the insurance situation in Ireland is much better than it was three or four years ago and to please come and have a look. It is, therefore, engaging with them to bring in new companies. A UK company that does thatched roofs has indicated its interest to come back. It has to go to the Central Bank of Ireland in 2023 to get authorisation, however. It is not through yet. I am hopeful that will happen. That is only an example of the recent meetings we have had. We will get some new underwriters back into Ireland that left at the time of Brexit. I am hopeful some of that can happen in the coming year. I cannot be any more definite on that. The company to which I referred has to put in its application to the Central Bank of Ireland to get approval, which always take a number of months in any event.

That is an indication. We met Brokers Ireland recently, as well as the individual major brokers in the country. When we specifically put the question to them about not dealing with thatched properties, one or two of the leading brokers, over and above the ones that the people in the audience would be familiar with, undertook at our request to look at the market. It is only in recent weeks that we met them and asked them to do that. I am waiting for a response but extra brokers are now looking at the market that were not doing so before.