Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 23 February 2023

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 14: Assessment and Collection of Insurance Compensation Fund Levies
Report on Administration and Movement of the Insurance Compensation Fund for the year ended 31 December 2021
Comptroller and Auditor General Section 2 Report on Unauthorised release of funds from the Central Fund of the Exchequer

9:30 am

Mr. Adrian Varley:

I can confirm, similar to before, that with regard to both European regulations and local supervision, the Central Bank regulates both domestic and international providers of insurance products. Over the past ten years, and longer, the entire system has been overhauled. As my colleague, Mr. Molloy, said, we are more than happy to discuss issues. Much is on the public record about Quinn. We can come back and discuss that. I suggest we do so in writing first. Second, as I mentioned before, part of the regulatory and supervisory regime for smaller firms, both across Europe and domestic, is that it is not a zero-failure regime, so things will happen, not just in insurance but in other sectors. Compensation funds are put in place to deal with that. The alternative is a zero-failure regime, which I do not think is possible and is also very expensive in different ways, meaning the prices of regulation, holding solvency amounts and capital amounts.