Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I take the opportunity to wish the Minister and Minister of State well and particularly the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, as the Minister, Deputy Noonan, has been there for some time. I had the pleasure of working with Deputy Murphy on the banking inquiry and I am sure he has a long career ahead of him in the Department of loaves and fishes. I just ask that when he decides who gets fed and who starves, he is very careful about doing it and perhaps listens to everybody in the House when he is making those difficult decisions.

Last week, during Private Members' business, or perhaps in the vote afterwards, Deputy John Deasy made a point which is worth noting in the House. I hope the Acting Chairman will bring it to the attention of the Ceann Comhairle and perhaps it will be considered in deliberations on Dáil reform. I spent quite a few years in the Seanad, where the practice is the same: Private Members' motions have no statutory basis and they have no standing. If we passed a motion this evening to travel to the moon by the end of August, the Minister responsible need only note it and put it into the room where these motions are duly stored. If a motion is passed, as this one will be this evening because clearly we have the numbers, it will be of benefit to people outside. There will be genuine expectation from the public at large that something along the lines of the proposals within the document brought forward tonight and within the motion, and the proposals being advocated by Members will, in fact, come into play. In reality, we know that is not the case. As we are undertaking Dáil reform and agreeing new procedures in the era of new politics, it is in the interest of the public's piece of mind and its confidence in our system that we give Private Members' motions more of a statutory basis and more of a chance to become reality than the motions that are often discussed and passed at county councils and local authorities throughout the country. Many of us are familiar with those.

Many of the key points and proposals have been made clear already in the debate. I would like to specifically speak in the context of rural Ireland which Deputy Eugene Murphy mentioned. We do not have public transportation as in the Minister's city and county of Limerick or the Minister of State's constituency of Dublin which has the benefit of Luas, DART, regular bus services, late night bus services, and the availability of taxis. Car insurance being obligatory in this country means that every young person who is starting off and purchasing a car to get around, either by raising a loan through the credit union or with savings, must insure their vehicles and they must be compliant with those regulations. When one considers the increases over the last two years in particular, as the Minister has heard already - 34% in the last year according to the Central Statistics Office and 30% the year before - it is simply unsustainable in this society for people in rural Ireland to get themselves around when they are being, effectively, priced out of the market. The economic downturn has affected the insurance industry with the exit of Quinn and Setanta and the financial figures of other companies seem to be very much under pressure. Notwithstanding that, they cannot just focus on the most vulnerable in society - those who absolutely need transportation to get around and who need insurance - to try to get the quick buck and get back to profitability.

We have heard from others about the Motor Insurance Advisory Board and its relative success over a seven-year period in the 1990s in which it managed to have a reduction in the region of 40%. Once we took down the fence to the hen house, the foxes ran ragged. That is what they are doing again. Over a two-year period, they have gazumped the savings that were made as a result of the interventions of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board in the 1990s and now we have a 60% increase. It is not sustainable and it is not fair. It is time to put that fence back up. It is also time as the motion proposes, to re-establish the Motor Insurance Advisory Board and give it the resources it requires and, more importantly, to give it cross-departmental reach and influence to introduce the sort of regulations and oversight that is required to ensure people get value for money.

I have a personal view, which is not mentioned in the motion, that we must focus on those people who absolutely depend on owning their own car for transport in the many rural areas and provincial towns that are not blessed with the same public transportation as the constituencies of the Minister and Minister of State.

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