John McGuinness (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The same argument can be made for older people. They, too, find themselves being penalised. In rural Ireland this causes great difficulties for families and individuals who are trying to get employment and, at the other end of the spectrum, for those who have retired and are simply trying to get around in their own communities. They cannot get insurance but they have done nothing wrong.

In some of these cases the people have not had an accident and their car was insured. In others, insurance companies refuse to insure an individual who drives a car over a certain numbers of years in age. The entire system has gone skew-ways, and nobody seems to be in control. While the Central Bank offers a consumer protection role, it does nothing to harness the actions of the insurance industry in driving up costs. We have had the arguments about the book of quantum being rewritten and presented. All of that has been done. We have had the actions of the courts and comparisons with the United Kingdom, which show massive payouts in Ireland when a fraction for the same injury would be paid out in the UK.

All of this comes back to the attitude of insurance companies, what they do in the marketplace and how that impacts upon individuals who are determined to get insurance but simply cannot. The country cannot go on like this. Our economy is suffering dramatically because of what is going on, and we should consider the contribution the Irish Road Haulage Association made to that debate. We are within a European Union market, a Single Market, yet it is impossible to get insurance cover offered in any other country. There are issues in that regard that need to be addressed. We cannot look at some of these pieces of legislation in isolation. There are massive issues to be addressed. We are waiting for the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, to produce his final report on the insurance industry. The finance committee made 79 recommendations on the insurance business and how it is being conducted in Ireland and the fact that there is almost a cartel in operation. That is a fact.

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