Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The key issue is that under EU law insurance firms can be licensed to sell services in Ireland while being fully supervised by their home regulators, which in the case of Setanta Insurance Company Limited was the Maltese regulator. The firm collapsed, leaving more than 70,000 Irish policyholders high and dry and out of pocket. In a reply to a recent parliamentary question the Minister confirmed to me that 744 insurance firms were licensed to sell motor and general insurance in Ireland but that only 112 of these were fully regulated for prudential purposes by the Central Bank of Ireland. That leaves a figure of 600 plus firms. I am not an expert in this regard and do not know whether these are niche insurance service providers or, for example, IFSC operations, but the matter requires further analysis, given what happened in the case of Setanta Insurance. Do we have a handle on the 600 plus firms that are licensed to carry out insurance business in Ireland but not regulated for prudential purposes by the Central Bank? This poses a risk to consumers, as crystallised in the case of Setanta Insurance.

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