Tommy Broughan (Dublin North East, Labour)

This Bill is another tragic element of the wreckage from the Irish banking disaster. At the outset, it should be acknowledged that Seán Quinn and the Quinn group did make a significant contribution to this country's economic life. In the group's direct insurance division, for example, there were around 1,700 people employed in Cavan, Blanchardstown, Enniskillen and the United Kingdom.

The Quinn group reportedly employed over 6,000 people across all its divisions with this employment being concentrated in counties Fermanagh and Cavan. The establishment of the insurance division's headquarters in Cavan provided a major fillip for the local economy and much needed employment in what was a terrible employment black-spot. In Cavan and Fermanagh, the Quinn Group is the type of employer where a whole family could be employed at the company, given the dearth of other employment opportunities in the area. The extraordinary history of this group of companies began in Seán Quinn's native Derrylin in County Fermanagh.

There has been a grotesque, rip-off culture within the Irish insurance market. The Acting Chairperson, Deputy Olivia Mitchell, will remember that we used to discuss that issue 15 or 20 years ago. Nonetheless, it was ignored and thus permitted and abetted by successive Governments. The competitive advantage that Quinn Insurance seemed to achieve since it entered the market in 1996 was often compared by the worshipping media to the achievements of Ryanair, as a strong domestic insurance provider, as they saw it.

However, as with our major failed banks and the totally failed regulatory system - which was spearheaded by the Fianna Fáil and Green Party politicians who led Governments over the past 13 years - questions were being raised from 2007 onwards, about the Quinn group's level of reserves, particularly in the UK. Comparisons were drawn around that time between the group's modus operandi and the operations of the failed Australian insurer HIH. These are matters which I hope the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform - of which I am a member - will thoroughly investigate and hold all those responsible to account in the coming years.

The unfolding of the Quinn Group saga since 2007 and the toxic interaction of the company with Anglo Irish Bank has produced a devastating effect on the company's employees and on the national economy, in addition to terrible new insurance costs for every Irish family. This Bill is a shocking result of the situation that the Quinn Insurance division currently finds itself in due to the appalling gambling with CFDs on Anglo Irish Bank shares by Seán Quinn and his group, as well as by his Bazzely family company.

Every household in Ireland is now being made to pay for that disgraceful and illegal behaviour. Householders are rightly appalled by the imposition of a 2% levy on all non-life and non-health insurance policyholders because of the inexcusably reckless behaviour involving crazy billion euro gambles on Anglo Irish Bank shares. It is now having a knock-on effect for insurance consumers, and will have an increasing effect in the years ahead.

It is an extraordinary scandal that throughout recent decades the public has been levied again and again to support disastrous insurance company failures, as with banking, while at the same time enduring high insurance premiums and dreadfully poor competition. As I understand it, the Government has to advance approximately €280 million of our money in the fourth quarter of this year to cover Quinn Group liabilities before the levy kicks in. The Insurance Compensation Fund currently stands at only €40 million, which is hopelessly inadequate compared to the amount required to keep this company in existence.

We are familiar with such levies because of what occurred when the PMPA became insolvent in the mid-1980s. That was another disgraceful episode in our economic history. That levy lasted until 1991. I welcome section 7 of the Bill which lays out provisions on contributions to the fund through insurance providers and includes a regular review of the levy. Such a review is extremely important as this levy should be as temporary as possible. I urge the Government to ensure that this is the case.

Major changes to the insurers in administration under this legislation will also ensure that the ICF will only apply to risks in the Irish State and only if 70% of the insurer's business in the previous three years related to risks in the Irish State.

The Quinn family's gambling on Anglo shares to the tune of €3 billion has to be one of the most disastrous punts in Irish corporate history. Their use of contracts for difference, CHDs, to buy shares and the toxic relationship between the Quinn family purchase of Anglo Irish Bank shares and the bolstering of Anglo share prices eventually blew up catastrophically when the casino bank unravelled with devastating losses for the Quinn group, for its workers and for all of us.

The story of the Quinn group and Anglo Irish Bank is another tale of arrogance, hubris and perhaps criminal corporate behaviour that has become all too familiar to the Irish people in recent years and this Bill is the necessary result. The debris and wreckage of this financial crisis has included important companies such as Quinn Insurance and AIB. The Irish people have been forced to purchase such companies with their hard-earned money and I would advocate that we hold onto them.

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