Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Tá mé ag roinnt ama le mo chomghleacaithe. There is an advertisement that appears regularly on people's social media. It is from Insurance Confidential and is an Insurance Ireland creation. The advertisement is supposed to show us how fraud is the reason all of us have been paying so much more for car insurance in the past few years. Every so often the advertisement pops up on social media and users can comment underneath it. It is hilarious, and it is interesting to read the comments. Most of them use very unparliamentary language. If I was to repeat some of it I am sure the Ceann Comhairle would have a lot to say about my language here but the general consensus is that nobody is buying the line from the insurance industry spin or its distraction campaigns. One states, "My insurance premium is higher because of greedy insurance companies" and "childish advertisement" is one comment that sums up most of the others.

As the motion before the House states, and I commend Deputy Michael McGrath for bringing it forward, it has been three years since we have seen an explosion in motor insurance premiums, yet this week I have heard of young and middle aged drivers who are receiving quotes for hundreds of euro on top of their existing high premiums. Many people do not have the option and cannot find better value when they shop around so it is a case of pay up or get off the road. The Facebook users know the score, and we all know the score. The insurers are still getting away with it just as they have done for the past few years.

The Government's report has some very good ideas but they need to be implemented as soon as possible. It has other ideas that are simply feeding the straw men that have been set up by the insurers. I repeat what has been obvious to me and to my party for a long time. All the legal fees, the fraud and the excuses dreamt up by insurers do not come close to explaining the massive increases we have seen, and are still seeing in some cases, in motor insurance premiums. The insurers invested poorly and their business model, which delivered so much profit for so long, has failed them and consumers are now paying the price. No amount of Government initiatives can change that but transparency is the key to at least removing the excuses, and lack of transparency favours the insurers and only adds to the suspicion of cartelism.

I welcome the focus in the motion on tackling the use of so-called failure to disclose by consumers as an excuse by insurers to prevent payouts. My Consumer Insurance Contracts Bill, which has passed Second Stage in this House and is awaiting Committee Stage, proposes changes to the law so that this type of behaviour will be much more difficult to get away with. The onus in that legislation would be put on the insurers to ask the relevant questions instead of on the consumer to know the information that will be held against him or her eventually. The Bill contains many other measures that are needed to level the playing field so that the consumer, be that the small business or the individual, can stand up to the insurers. It is part of the overall solution package.

The motion put forward by Deputy McGrath is correct to look at the cost of business insurance in the same way we have looked at the issue of motor insurance. Many of the same issues apply and as far as I am concerned, the same root cause is to be found. The more public fuss there is about car insurance the more the insurers are likely to spread their increases across other areas. That is what we are seeing in terms of recent trends. Health and home insurance will not be immune either. When I asked the committee on finance to look at this issue I hoped that swift intervention would have shamed the insurers into delivering fair prices. We are seeing some movement in that regard but we are also seeing that they have hunkered down and are trying to brazen out the storm, and in some ways the Government has facilitated them and even met them half way in some of their claims.

I support this motion. Pressure needs to be kept on the Government to meet its own timetable at least, which is very poor, and I made that point in the debate on the Government's report. Motor insurance and business insurance keep the economy moving. When the system that implements them is failing it has huge implications. The answer must be a greater role for the State in this issue when the private sector is so clearly failing to deliver a functioning market.

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