Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I have an official reply to Deputy Pearse Doherty's question, which is identical to the reply to the previous question. If we take the reply as read, I will speak to the Deputy's questions. If I may, I will first respond briefly to the issues raised by Deputy Michael McGrath a moment ago.

We have to make a difference in this area for businesses and consumers and to have a competitive and functioning economy. It is important that the reforms will be across the insurance industry sector. Legislation will be required in some areas, while in others we will need to review existing legislation to ascertain whether certain sections of Acts that have been in place since 2004 have been commenced. We need to do different things and, again, that speaks to the consensus I hope to achieve to enable us to expedite the legislation and reviews.

We need to deliver clarity and transparency for consumers and the market to ensure they can be confident when seeking insurance cover that it will be provided at an appropriate price and will stand. They must also be able to see how increases in premiums are calculated and have more power, not only to shop around but also to understand and have faith in the operation of the market. They should not feel they are being unfairly penalised for things they have not done. This speaks to reforms that need to be made in the areas of claim costs, award amounts and the resolution processes currently in place.

To respond to Deputy Doherty's questions on a definitive date for publication, we have 40 recommendations and I wanted to wait until I had spoken in detail to the joint committee on each of them. I do not want one or two recommendations to find their way into the public domain as this could give the impression that we are only considering one issue and ignoring others. I will be more than happy to circulate to the joint committee the papers submitted to the Minister at the end of last month and I can do so immediately. I will also be more than happy to discuss them with the joint committee.

We indicated previously that the report would be published in December and I do not see any reason for missing that deadline. Much of the work for the report has been done but it has not yet been submitted to the Minister. We sent the recommendations to the Minister and added some context. I will also be able to speak to the context in the committee. Members will have a detailed report in December, which provides recommendations and an action plan with a detailed implementation timeline.

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