Pat Buckley (Cork East, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is vital, because in Irish society, or in any society for that matter, people are very slow to change. I always say that the key to anything is getting the right information out into the public domain. I suspect that the witnesses might be a lot busier after this meeting. Unfortunately, that comes with success.

I will certainly be working with the office more because I did not realise it had such a broad remit. We have a lot of people stuck in caravan parks and the insurance industry just seems to be picking off their own levels every so often. Something to do with regulation and a fair playing field is necessary there. Ireland is a small island, but the difference between this side of it and the Six Counties is frightening. How do we find balance in that? Can the office work with the European Union? If the office refers cases to the Central Bank, where it seems to have a good success rate, which is a good sign, is there a mechanism by which issues can be raised without going to the High Court? We are all supposed to be part of Europe but everything seems to be different. Why are we the outlier when it comes to people paying much higher insurance premiums than people in Holland or Germany, for example? Can the office raise that issue? What can we do to work with the office to benefit everybody and bring in more regulation and a fairer playing field?