Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats) | Oireachtas source

I very much support this motion, but why has this not happened before? Why has the Government not taken action in this area? We know that insurance costs are far too high. The current annual inflation rate is running at over 34%. We have no explanation for this and, as far as the Government is concerned, there is no real proposed action to tackle the problem. In recent years the rising cost of living on several fronts has been a significant problem for many families. This is one area that is driving up the cost of living for ordinary families. There are several actions the Government can take to tackle matters such as this in a way that does not entail expenditure but could reduce the cost of insurance, along with tackling water charges and ensuring greater competition on energy costs, which would have a huge impact on the cost of living and family budgets. Unfortunately, the Government has been quite remiss in this area and, rather than taking that approach to tackling the cost of living and dealing with the issues it has a role in, it has promised tax cats which simply erode the tax base and reduce the potential for investment in good quality public services.

The Social Democrats identified the rising cost of insurance as a key area of concern in increasing family budgets. We dealt with this last year and raised it several times. We all became aware very quickly in the recent general election that this is a pressing issue for most people. It was one of the key issues that came up on the doorsteps and it has taken that for the Government to come up with some proposals for a potential task force. In many ways, that action is too little too late. The response of the Government has been too slow but the response of the Central Bank has also been too slow.

A constituent recently told me that he received a quote for his 2009, 1.4L Renault Mégane of €873, up from €493 last year. Another constituent told me his insurance doubled from €600 last year to €1,200 this year. We hear these stories repeated over and again with no explanation offered. There is very little transparency in the insurance companies’ charging regime. It is very difficult to explain the difference between the increases operating in distinct but similar motor insurance markets. For example, there has been little or no premium inflation in motorcycle insurance for the past three years, apart from a significant blip of almost 6% last October. Motor car insurance premiums, however, have rocketed, with inflation of over 10% in each of the months since the autumn of 2014 and in excess of 25% in each of the months since autumn 2015. How can two very similar markets operate so differently?

It is difficult to believe that there is not excessive profit-taking going on, yet, as the insurance industry points out, premiums have gone up and down in recent years. However, they are now 56% higher than at the end of 2011. This not only imposes a huge additional cost on individual families but also on businesses because the same kind of increases have been applied to commercial vehicles. I think of people trying to run small businesses, sole traders, people who drive taxis and so on. It makes it very difficult for them to operate in a way that returns any profit to their small business. This is a timely motion and we very much support it. It is long overdue.

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