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

My understanding on the ombudsman situation is that it is a regulated business and a complaint can go to the Financial Services and Pensions Ombudsman, FSPO, from any consumer. The FSPO handles all financial services. It is a separate issue, but 28,000 people are employed in the insurance sector in Ireland, so it is quite a big industry. There are still some gaps and pinch points with cover.

The one thing no ombudsman, the Government or the Central Bank can do is direct prices because the competition in respect of the insurance market is Europe-wide and once a company is regulated in Ireland it can sell into other EU countries and vice versa. Every insurance company bar one is from outside the State so we cannot regulate prices here. The minute we do that we would have no insurance because they would not come if we did so, and it would breach every EU treaty if we tried to do that.