Richard Boyd Barrett (Dún Laoghaire, People Before Profit Alliance) | Oireachtas source

I thank Fianna Fáil for tabling the motion on an extremely important subject. Huge numbers of citizens are being ripped off by insurance companies. I primarily want to address the cost of motor insurance, but I will comment on the cost of health insurance initially. It is the biggest scam ever. I would never take out private health insurance on principle because in the area of health it is obscene and unacceptable that we have a two-tier system under which people receive premium health care if they pay and second-class health care if they do not. It is worse than that because many of the inadequacies in the public health system result precisely from the existence of a private health tier and private health insurance leeching off the public system, a little like fee paying schools. They receive the benefits of public funding and support, while generating a premium above it to support a two-tier system.

I understand many people take out private health insurance out of fear of the public system, but the problem is that is a self-fulfilling prophecy. By taking it out, they reinforce the system. I do not blame those who do it out of fear, but, ironically, are they better off with private health insurance? It is a serious question as to whether they are because when it comes to the most serious illnesses, they end up having to go back into the public system. The private health insurance industry is a parasite on the public health system and resources and finance that should go into providing a quality universal health system for all. The Government parties often talk, as a way of absolving themselves of the crisis in the public system, about the fact that Ireland spends one of the highest proportions of GDP on health services, but they always fail to say a huge portion of that figure, approximately €3 billion, is paid to the private system. When it is taken out, one realises why there is a crisis in the public health system. We mirror the United States in that sense. A total of 40% of expenditure on health services in the United States basically represents profiteering by the private health insurance industry and other private health service providers. We should get rid of private health insurance by having a national health system. It is one extortionate cost imposed on huge numbers of people that could be removed.

I do not disagree with anything in the motion and there is not much with which I disagree in the reports of the Minister of State and the Oireachtas joint committee which made some good recommendations. However, none of them will address the problem, which is that motor insurance providers are profiteering from the fact that it is a mandatory legal requirement to have motor insurance if one drives. They have a captive audience

Many people do not have a choice about driving. A car is necessary for many people in rural areas where public transport is woefully inadequate. One has to have insurance, otherwise one is breaking the law. For elderly people, people with mobility problems and people who earn their living through driving - the most obvious are taxi drivers but there are other jobs that require a car - one is captive in that one has to drive and the law requires one to have insurance, but the State does not provide a minimum level of not-for-profit insurance. Therefore, one is prey for the private motor insurance companies which profiteer from the fact that they have a captive market.

The transparency measures do not go far enough. The emphasis put by the Government in the prelude to these reports was all about fraudulent claims, overstating the extent of those fraudulent claims, legal costs, which are a factor but do not explain the dramatic increases in recent years, and giving more information to the consumer about the breakdown of premiums or increases and all the rest of that. They do not get to the fundamental problem, and I do not think any of these measures will get to the fundamental problem, that the private insurance companies with a captive market can always find ways to ratchet up premiums to make money.

Private insurance companies are entirely tied up with a market. The biggest reason for the big increases was that their investments went bad. They lost much money on the markets and then decided to recoup that money by screwing the premium holders and people seeking insurance. That was the major reason for these dramatic increases, and nothing is going to stop, including the measures proposed in the Fianna Fáil motion, in the Government's recommendations or for that matter by the all-party Oireachtas committee. Given that it is a legal mandatory requirement, there has to be the provision of some sort of basic motor insurance which is affordable for everybody on a not-for-profit basis. If people want premium insurance after that, they can go to the private market.

This is a legal requirement. If it is a legal requirement, the State has to make it affordable for those who need it. Taxi drivers are literally being put out of business by these guys. If one has the slightest prang - of course, one is going to have small prangs if one is driving all the time for a living - one is gone. Premiums are already massively high and people who have never had accidents are getting premiums of €17,000 and €20,000, which are ridiculous figures. That is not sustainable for taxi drivers. Of course, over the course of driving for a living, one is going to have some little accident, which is not even one's fault. It could be a small thing, but that is it - one is out of a job. There has to be a particular control or the provision of a special category of insurance premiums and policies to allow taxi drivers to function, or for that matter other people who have to drive for a living. Something has to be done about the issue of discrimination against the elderly, against young people and against rural dwellers. I also believe young nurses and other health care workers are getting punitive premiums, and I believe journalists also get punitive premiums for some reason just because they are journalists. I do not quite fully understand that. That discrimination should not be allowed.

I asked the Minister of State about this and he said that is just the way insurance works. He said companies look at categories of drivers and this is going to influence the premiums. That is not fair. If one happens to be in one of those categories, but has a perfectly good record, or has a car that passed the NCT, but happens to be older, one is penalised. That penalises the young or less well-off but it is just not fair. None of the Minister of State's measures is doing anything to deal with that unfairness and discrimination.

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