Mr. Gerry Cross:

My colleague, Mr. Cullinan, set out the matter very well. This issue of the cross-border provision of services, which, as he said, works in terms of both outgoing business from Ireland, to a very significant extent, and incoming business, is at the heart of our membership of the EU from an insurance perspective. As we know in this jurisdiction, it has been problematic at times. Firms here have been doing precisely as the Deputy described and it has ended badly, as we have seen continuing over a number of years where firms failed and policyholders were left in bad circumstances. We have seen, for example, the adjustments to the compensation arrangements, which I discussed with the committee at a previous meeting.

Nevertheless, this is one of the reasons our participation with our European counterparts, particularly through the EIOPA platforms, were designed precisely to ensure we would be well joined up. Where there are difficulties, challenges or emerging problems, we are able to engage with them and they with us. That has been something of a journey over recent years, where it has grown closer and closer. Interestingly, in the current solvency review, there are proposals from the European Commission to make that process even more closely aligned, some aspects of which might be a little troubling from various perspectives. In principle, that idea of collaboration and co-operation is at the heart of success here.

The Deputy is correct that the approach needs to come from all perspectives. Of course, we are concerned about how companies do their business here, but their resilience, their soundness and their ultimate risk management, governance and underwriting practices are, as was said, matters for their home supervisors. For us, it is very important that engagement through EIOPA, the European authority, be very tight, and it continues to improve.