Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

It is important that we have this debate today while we have a strange vacuum in our Parliament and parliamentary business. Many people outside the House, especially businesspeople and those working trying to make a living, are dumbfounded at the delay in the formation of a Government. They are very disappointed that, after going out to vote, so many weeks on we still do not have a Government. It would not happen in any business. No business could afford to be without leadership, vision or the wheels being kept oiled and turning. We need to ask ourselves some serious questions.

I am glad to be able to speak on insurance costs. As a self-employed person since 1982, I have been grappling with insurance costs and claims. I have also dealt regularly with constituents’ problems with insurance costs from community groups to businesspeople, from road hauliers to hoteliers and the restaurant trade. Insurance is vital and we all have to have it. I condemn those, especially car drivers, who do not have insurance cover, as they leave nothing but chaos behind them. As for the recovery the Government talked about, many people, certainly in rural and provincial Ireland, would not know how to spell the word because they are barely holding on, trying to keep the bills paid. I do not know what justification there is for insurance premia to steadily rise every week.

There are many areas which need to be examined, particularly the most recent case of an award to a hillwalker. I am involved with Knockmealdown Active and the Glen of Aherlow Fáilte Society in Tipperary, groups which, with the co-operation of Coillte, county councils and, above all, private landowners, do much work to open up walking trails in the wonderful countryside with its rich heritage. Much valiant effort was made to get where we are, but it is frustrating to think that such a willy-nilly claim like last week’s could damage these efforts. In Waterford, we are doing much work on a greenway right from Waterford city to Dungarvan but people have already made several claims for injuries on this trail which is a flat surface, an old railway line track. There is bound to be an element of risk with such activity, so one has to take care. They are not jumping off trees or off cliffs but walking on flat surfaces. If one falls, surely there is some onus on oneself to take care.

Any small business which wishes to work for a local authority must have public liability cover of €6.9 million, as well as large cover for employer liability. That is an exorbitant amount of money for a business with the cost of it going up drastically. Last week in Tipperary, I met a haulier with a sizeable business whose insurance was €80,000 last year. This year, his premium has increased by €100,000. It is just a case of pushing the boat out as far as one can, unless we get some more players in the market. I had experience one time of trying to get insurance but no one would touch me in Ireland. I was told I had to go to Lloyd's of London for underwriting. I found out afterwards that those not giving me a quote in the first place were already underwriting with Lloyd’s. There are many shenanigans going on in the industry but not a lot of openness or transparency. There is absolutely zero regulation, unlike with many areas of our business life and other life in this country.

The legal profession has a lot to answer for, particularly when one sees solicitors advertising now with a free first consultation and on a no foal, no fee basis. That was taboo 30 years ago but now it is commonplace. There need to be refresher courses for most of our eminent judges. Judges are appointed for life and my colleague, Deputy Ross, is trying to change the way they are appointed. They need to be aware of the pressure and hardship some spurious and over-the-top payments and legal costs can put on a small business, community organisation, public hall, walking trail or greenway. More effort must be made to deal with the scams going on. The courts have much to answer for. More cases - I had them myself - are settled on the steps of the High Court. They cannot be settled, with everyone traipsing up to the High Court day in, day out, for two years, but eventually, they are settled on the steps.

The costs to business and ordinary people are enormous.

5 o’clock

The legal eagles and the legal system seem to be disconnected from the reality of the damage that is being done to the fabric of society, to the enthusiastic people in the community and voluntary bodies and to the entrepreneurs, small business people and hard-pressed ordinary families trying to make ends meet. The scale of legal costs and fees are in the category of telephone numbers. There have been some alarming pay-outs. For too long it has been a far too lucrative industry and the Government has direct responsibility in this respect. The Minister and the incoming Government need to deal with this issue in a realistic, fair, honest and decent manner. Rip-off Ireland is alive and well. We thought that in the aftermath of the Celtic tiger years some of that practice had ended but it is back with us. The cheek of any business to try to double and more than double insurance costs for a hard-pressed business man.

I did not thank the previous Government for much but I thanked it at the time for the efforts it made with respect to road hauliers. We had banged on for years about the pressure they were under with the high taxation on their lorries. I think the Acting Chairman spoke about it at the time. We were helping out the hauliers. It is a vital industry to our country for exports and connectivity with Europe and our near neighbours. It seems that because they got a break on that aspect some of those in the insurance industry believe they can penalise and screw those fellows and double their premiums. There is no regulation of this by the competition authority or anybody else. All these toothless bodies have been set up. There are countless such bodies and I heard another one mentioned on a radio programme the other morning, one I had not heard of previously. It is another quango. We have all these quangos. It is like a disease the way they are spreading. It is killing businesses. Those bodies are not doing the job they were set up to do. They are not serving the public or serving the public interest. Many of them are self-serving and there are good jobs for the people in those bodies. It has become a good industry for policing and for having good jobs. Many of those involved in them would not know a lorry from a mountain deer. Those are the facts. There is no regulation. I do not know why we have allowed that to continue and why someone in government has not addressed it. The same applies to the competition authority when it comes to food prices in the large conglomerates and what they are doing to small businesses in Ireland. We are driving the lifeblood and spirit out of the people.

We have seen all the work done by the IFA, other rural groups and farmers to open up pathways through their lands with the development of greenways. It is no wonder there are difficulties when people see large claims being made. I condemn the people who commit fraud and, unfortunately, there is a good number of them. That is the reason we need insurance cover.

Medical indemnity insurance is frightfully expensive. We need balance, some semblance of fair play and honesty, and not these types of rackets. There are not enough exposés of such practices on television programmes and elsewhere to expose these wrongdoings. The wrongdoing is one thing but the underbelly of overcharging within the legal limits where no laws are being broken goes against the spirit of every law and action when it comes to any right-thinking person.

We are trying to kick-start the economy and rejuvenate our town centres and rural areas by getting people to support our home industry. We need to have a root and branch examination of the cartels in the industry and in the legal profession who are all in it together. The attitude of "You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours, and I'll pull the ladder up when I get up and keep it up so that anybody else can't get up" borders on the perverse. It is not good enough. We are having statements on the industry but it is all talk and no action. We need action. If somebody is seriously injured at work or elsewhere, they have to be looked after but where industry and voluntary groups are being penalised unduly, the wrath of Government must come down on those involved, if we are ever going to have a Government and if that Government will ever have any wrath or power. I mean "wrath" and not the other kind in case those opposite think I was saying something bad about them.

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