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

The strong message has been sent and the measures are in place and are being worked upon. Applications have been made by new entities to the Central Bank. I do not have the latest numbers but they were in the region of between three and five the last time I got the figures from the Central Bank. It is positive that new entities will be coming into the Irish market. I have to see how that plays out into the future in so far as other entities are concerned. The action plan's first quarterly report came out this afternoon. When one looks at that action plan, one will be able to see in detail what actions have happened according to the timeline envisaged for this first quarter of our report and also what progress has been made on actions that are due for completion in other quarters this year and next year. It is a very important level of transparency so that everyone here, all stakeholders, consumers and the Oireachtas, can see exactly how we are managing our targets. It shows progress. It is very important that I have already reported to the Oireachtas committee on a number of occasions and given preliminary reports ahead of that quarterly reporting. This is not a report sitting on a shelf. There are actions here with lead owners - people who are responsible for implementing these actions - and I, as chair, am responsible for reporting to make sure those actions take place. The level of transparency shows the commitment from the Government. The CSO figures show a positive trend. The CSO is responsible for calculating them. We should not causally question those figures unless we have a solid basis for doing so. On an anecdotal level, we are both aware of people who are still seeing increases in their individual premiums. The figures I gave were on motor insurance. The second phase of the working group's work is under way and is dealing with employer liability insurance and public liability insurance. We are looking at additional measures we can implement to add to the measures we already have in motor insurance. When one looks at the report, one will see the measures we are bringing in for the consumer with regard to transparency of data and things like fraud will have an impact beyond motor insurance and into other areas of insurance. There is still work to do there and it is important we get that work right. We do not want to take an action that might act as a disincentive for new entrants to come into the market. We need to see a competitive space in the insurance sector.

See this speech in context