Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)

It is still so hard to understand. Even with our group's scheme and policy, which I think went out to 12 insurers that could undertake public liability insurance, two or three came back but the rest were just not interested. You hear the fear of the big injury but there are only so many times you can hear that when it has not happened. They are always worried about that big injury that could happen when it comes to leisure. I am sorry I am talking about leisure but I think it applies to every business. They are doing their part when it comes to health and safety.

We have put more health and safety in place than has ever been seen, between getting soft play structure tested every single year, making sure that everyone's first aid is up to date, making sure that HR is up to date, making sure there are health and safety risk assessments - everything. We are being asked to do all this, and every year there seems to be another box we have to tick to even get insurance. Businesses are playing their part. The Government, in fairness, has really done its part in terms of the reforms, although we have more to do. It is time for insurance companies to do their part. It is like I am looking for the magic thing to see how we get them to do their part. I am very grateful we have the group scheme, and I acknowledge and really appreciate the two or three that gave us a quote for that, but there are businesses that cannot get it and they should not have to be in a group scheme to be able to obtain insurance.

I, for one, will absolutely continue to do what I can to help the witnesses and to help businesses like ours. I will continue to speak to the Minister of State, Robert Troy, and people in our party. I hope we can see the witnesses get through to them and see businesses being able to obtain fair insurance. I would like to see if there is anything that has been done in another country, maybe Australia or somewhere else, and see if there is an example there of how we can do this.