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

I will make two points on that. First, the CSO produces regular information, some on a monthly and some on a quarterly basis. It will be self-evident, independently of the Government. Second, the Central Bank produces information on claims in a number of sectors in a claims database. It has been doing so once a year. We have requested that from the start of next year, it produces some of these reports every six months.

The quality of the information that our Central Bank produces on the insurance industry in Ireland is far superior to that of any other central bank in other countries. Only in the past fortnight, the Central Bank issued its most recent report on the motor industry. It contains all the granular information about costs and numbers of claims because the Central Bank regulates that industry. It does not just regulate but supervises that sector and has access to every piece of information in it. That is why in recent months the Central Bank believed, and it is not unconnected to this matter, that having looked at all the information there might be a level of under-insurance in the homes market. It wrote to every chief executive. People might have repeated whatever value they put on their houses many years ago even though the value may have gone up. The Central Bank estimates some houses have been undervalued by up to 15%. It has written to every insurance company asking them to contact their customers when insurance renewals come up to make sure the valuation customers estimate for rebuilding costs takes account of increasing costs over the years. The Central Bank is very much on the case. It is independent of the Government and is ultimately the supervisor in this area.