Catherine Connolly (Galway West, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Michael McGrath for tabling this motion. I have no hesitation in supporting it. I want to say there is quite a lot of merit in what my colleague, Deputy Boyd Barrett, has said in respect of a State insurance company. It should be looked at.

Since the 1980s, the compensation fund has advanced moneys to the former PMPA, to the former Insurance Corporation of Ireland, to Quinn Insurance and lately we are looking at Enterprise. Outside of housing and health, the rise in the cost of insurance is the issue causing most concern to people. The figures are staggering. They are not sustainable.

Into that comes the narrative of the insurance companies. I have to disagree slightly with my colleague here, much to my reluctance, but I believe the narrative of the insurance companies is to put the blame on the claimants as opposed to looking at what are the problems. In this regard I have previously quoted the former chairperson of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, Dorothea Dowling. She points out, in respect of the narrative being spun by the insurance companies, it is only because of the existence of PIAB, with whom all injury cases must be registered, that we know the total average number of claims is 31,576. She said PIAB can only account for 9,046 between the courts and PIAB. There are 22,530 claims on which only the insurers have the information on who is getting what. That should be borne in mind when listening to the narrative from the insurance companies as to what is leading to increased costs.

Separately and entirely, there are 151,000 people on our roads without insurance. Separate from that again, four out of every ten accidents involve alcohol. They are some of the reasons leading to insurance claims, in addition to the failure of the insurance companies themselves to give information. In respect of the review of the framework for motor insurance compensation in Ireland, published last July, which I have read and downloaded, none of it has been implemented. We hear tonight that something is going to happen in the next few months. There were four very specific recommendations. I do not know what the delay is in implementing them.

If we go to the motion in respect of Setanta itself, in a previous life I had experience on the ground of the absolutely appalling suffering of victims of car accidents who find themselves in the position of having no cover. Setanta got into trouble in 2014, which is three years ago. We have this framework, published last year, but absolutely no action on it.

There is a number of things we can do. First, I welcome the motion and all of the recommendations in it. Second, I am looking at the framework and I specifically ask the Minister what accounts for the delay in implementing the recommendations of that review. Why has it not been done, in particular in relation to the database? I see absolutely no reason for a delay. That is one of the specific recommendations of the report. It has not been touched.

I will leave it at that. I happily support the motion without any reluctance.

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