Mr. Brian Hanley:

It is quite the ultimatum when we consider all the other reforms that have been forthcoming and the reduction in the volume of claims. It is quite revealing of the providers' attitude to everybody, including policyholders and the people like Deputy Conway-Walsh who implemented the reforms they said were needed.

Turning to competition, two or three points occur to me. One is that there are some good initiatives in the new action plan on how we can promote it. The Office to Promote Competition in the Insurance Market needs to be additionally resourced. It is important to recognise that Ireland had a bad reputation for a long time in terms of the volume and the size of awards, and it can take time to address and change that reputation. The landscape has been completely reformed, including in terms of the volume of claims, the legislative changes around the duty of care for occupiers' liability and the stability around awards by way of the personal injury guidelines. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, had a meeting with Lloyd's of London recently. It is really important that there is a clear strategy that is properly resourced because it will take time to change our reputation. If we do not put in additional resources and do something different, we can only expect the same results we have been getting to date, which for businesses seeking liability insurance, unfortunately, means there are no additional underwriters.

We also need to look at why the incumbents in the market are not increasing their risk appetite. Many businesses, including members of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, are stuck with only one or perhaps two underwriters. Having one underwriter willing to provide cover depicts, in essence, market failure in that particular space. It would be useful for the CCPC to undertake a review of the liability market now that all these reforms have come in to better assess why we have not seen increased competition. Given the number of consolidations in the brokerage market, that should also be factored into any CCPC review. A lot of reforms have been introduced. Why is the dial not moving on this? There is never any harm in shining a light on these issues. This is an additional element beyond further resources for the competition office. It would be very welcome to have the committee's support on that.