Jack Chambers (Dublin West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy McGrath and the Fianna Fáil finance team for putting forward a very important motion. Many of my generation have been particularly affected by the cost imposition, particularly in the motor insurance area and I am delighted to be able to speak on it. Consumers have been hit, as has been mentioned, with a 60% increase in insurance premiums since January 2014 and 34% in the last year alone. This is very worrying and can no longer be ignored. The problems in the sector have come about through a combination of poor regulation and mismanagement by the insurance sector. There is a requirement now that the Government acts, as has been proposed in this motion.

I read the submission that we all got from Insurance Ireland today and I was taken aback by what its members were saying. It seemed to be a clear deflection strategy to avoid the elephant in the room that is themselves. They came forward with some positive measures including: strengthening the Injuries Board, which we all support; internationally benchmarking awards, which is a prudent thing to do; fixing Setanta and Quinn and the cost legacy issues there; and increasing road traffic enforcement. They are all aspirational measures but they avoid targeting why they have increased so many people's premiums to an enormous extent.

The Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport nailed it in 2015 when it said there are higher premiums for higher profits. That is one of the reasons we are seeing the massive increase in insurance premiums in Ireland today. In 2009, the European Union carried out a retail insurance market study which analysed the 27 EU countries and many of the US states. When one breaks down the data, the study looked at each country individually and the variation of premiums and the income the EU took as a collective. It went from €80 billion to €120 billion in that period. It looked at the market in Ireland at the time and I accept things have changed since. There was a high concentration of international, cross-global and multinational operators in the Irish market which are bonded throughout the world and can take the hit when it comes to increases in the cost imposition in different countries.

We look at insurance through a very basic mechanism. People who have a no claims bonus for years, are safe drivers and have never had an accident are seeing an enormous increase in their insurance premiums. That shows market dysfunction and I am glad we are trying to tackle it today by taking some measures. I hope the Minister accepts the motion and takes some action to address the issues. The study tracked Ireland at the time when Ireland took measures, such as the Personal Injuries Assessment Board and other measures such as reducing the costs in the insurance sector, premiums dropped. The claims ratio also dropped at the time. It dropped to a greater extent than the marginal decrease in the premiums so insurers were still profiteering at the time, even when claims and the cost base was dropping, which shows a very profit focused insurance sector. What we are seeing now is the reverse - possibly increased claims and increased incidents of fraud - but insurers are milking those statistics to massively increase their premiums as the Department of Transport, Tourism and Sport said, to increase their own profits. We can tackle this by reinstating the Motor Insurance Advisory Board.

In this era of new politics, I hope the Minister does not allow this motion to fall. I also hope he will not just accept the arguments put forward and that he will do something about this issue. Families, and taxi drivers, as Deputies Eugene Murphy and Niall Collins mentioned, have faced an enormous increase in insurance costs and it is important that we tackle this issue to try to reduce premiums.

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