Gerry Horkan (Fianna Fail)
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There is a lot of frustration here. I am a relatively new Member of the Oireachtas. This committee has done a lot of work on motor insurance and produced a very good report, to which the Minister of State contributed. He was a signatory of the report at the time. Senator Conway-Walsh and I, as well as all the Deputies and Senators, participated in the preparation of the report. The report was published in November 2016 and a year and half has elapsed. People watching this debate will have heard phrases such as "it is down the road", "we are looking at it" and "we have asked the Law Reform Commission to consider the matter." I am not having a go at the Minister of State and note he only has this brief for the past number of months. The Minister for Housing, Planning and Local Government, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, is a former Minister of State at the Department of Finance and had been responsible for this matter. Is there hope this matter will be resolved? Can he give five examples of changes so that we can tell people what changes have been delivered? I know the cost of house insurance and property insurance has increased. Insurance brokers try to get the best deal for their clients and recently, I met a broker who told me about a fairly significant business that may close due to the hike in premiums. It simply cannot make money any more based on the cost of insurance. The company has not had a claim lodged against it yet its premiums have increased.