Mr. Peter Boland:

There has been engagement. Our perspective on this is evolving because we did not start as an alliance that could analyse this crisis in detail. We started and remained an alliance that represents members regarding the crisis they are experiencing. We have engaged and developed a much broader perspective in the past while. I go back to one of the Deputy's original comments on this. Historically, we have had very high levels of awards and claims in this country. These are serious issues that have fed into this crisis and need to be addressed. Arising from our engagement with the insurance industry, we have not received any data that would justify the spike in premiums we have seen in recent years. I am conscious that this is the finance committee and that we are representing businesses. While we have data on motor insurance, we do not have any data to explain what is happening. I will ask Mr. Gerry Monks to give an insight from the perspective of family grocery stores. From January 2014 to December 2016, we saw a 70% spike in motor insurance premiums. We did not see a spike in claims or awards that would justify that increase. There is no clarity in this area. As Ms Murray stated, insurers are again recording very healthy profits across the sector. We do not have clarity on this either but our understanding is that management fees transferred back to parent companies remain an issue. As we do not have a blue book, we cannot prove that. The extent to which insurance companies reserve for potential losses has increased dramatically in recent years, prompted by the Central Bank. Again, our understanding is that the companies are over-reserving at this stage, which means these reserves are ploughed back into profitability. We are faced on one side with an interest group, the lawyers, that has historically done very well out of this sector and, on the other side, insurers, which over any ten-year period always make a profit. We are the jam in the middle. We have not got clear answers and we do not have the data to explain the position, which is certainly part of the problem. I will let Mr. Monks introduce himself. He has put together some data on another sector to show that this is not a very specific issue for one sector.