John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail)
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I could put my next question to any of the three CEOs but I will put it to Mr. O'Rourke. The information he has given the committee is that we can see insurance premiums coming down. He said there is evidence of that. The evidence I see in my office is that insurance premiums are going up. I am not saying the majority are going up but the ones I see are. I have an example to hand where the individual is insuring a car and nothing has changed except that he and the car are a year older. His insurance last year was €470 and this year it is €608.17. Given that there was very little driving going on over the past year because of the Covid-19 pandemic, other than in local areas, and given that there is a 50% no-claims record on this particular premium, why has it increased? I know Mr. O'Rourke will say he cannot comment on individual cases but all the other cases are the same. Nothing has happened to justify any kind of an increase in those cases. If anything has happened, it is that the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, has said that insurance premiums will come down. That is not what we are experiencing in our offices. In spite of everything the witnesses said this afternoon, I hold to the position that insurance premiums have gone up for a considerable number of people.