Darragh O'Brien (Dublin Fingal, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his detailed contribution and welcome the publication of the Indecon report. I have raised this matter with the Minister of State at the Committee on Foreign Affairs and Trade and have tabled parliamentary questions on a number of occasions. I commend the Minister of State on the work he has done. I do not often say this to Government Ministers but he has added a great deal of energy to the role, which is a very important one. In my own role as foreign affairs spokesperson for Fianna Fáil, I have had the pleasure of meeting many Irish communities abroad over the past number of months. All of them speak very highly of the work done by the Minister of State and his Department. It is important that good work is recognised when it is being done.

The Minister of State has outlined the high level items in the report. We need some time to read it and, most importantly, to consider what actions come from it. The statistics in the report are stark in respect of the number of people who have encountered grave difficulties when returning home. I am aware of these issues through my own office as well and want to touch on a couple of them. There are actions we can take quite quickly. I raised one such matter with the Minister of State and the Minister, Deputy Coveney, a number of months ago. I recognise that the Minister of State referred to the new agreed protocol with Insurance Ireland. The anecdotal evidence from my constituents in Dublin Fingal and beyond is that insurance premiums are still much higher for returning emigrants. The Minister of State noted a reduction in the number of insurance contracts that have been declined. However, we need to look at the premium cost itself, which is a big issue. It is still an issue in that certain insurance companies are not taking no-claims records from driving experience abroad into account. Those who may have driven in Ireland previously and have now come back after a number of years are being treated like brand new drivers. That is a big issue and a big cost. I have sent examples to the Minister of State and the Minister previously of people for whom the insurance cost per month is higher than the loan repayments on the car. That needs to change.

In the year from April 2016 to April 2017 we had about 28,000 people returning and the figure is increasing. This is good news for us and our country. As well as motoring, banking needs to be looked at given that 36% of returning emigrants said opening a bank account at home - something that should be pretty simple - was either difficult or very difficult. That is something we can address with the Irish Banking Federation and I suggest that the Minister of State invite it in and ask it why this is allowed to happen. We are finding in the financial services realm that there is a two-tier system. There is one system for those who have been here a number of years and another for those who are returning. That should not be the case, as the Minister of State has recognised in his speech. Delving further into the research, more than 40% of people described transferring pensions or other savings as difficult or very difficult. The whole area of financial services needs to be looked at. That can be done under the watch of the Minister of State, by his Department.

I submitted a parliamentary question recently about the reciprocal arrangements on driving licences between Ireland and other countries outside the EU. We are not really at the top of the class on that. We have arrangements with countries such as Australia, Gibraltar, Guernsey, the Isle of Man, Japan, Jersey, South Africa, South Korea, Switzerland, New Zealand, Taiwan and four provinces in Canada. Bar that, there are no other agreements.

I would like to know whether we are advancing agreements with other countries. That is a significant problem for people. While the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport in one of his few announcements over the past year mentioned a reduction in the requirement from 12 driving lessons to six, which is positive, many of these people would not have to do this if reciprocal arrangements were in place. Someone who returns from any country I have not mentioned has to go back to scratch, including for insurance premia and so on.

The report is welcome and we need to agree actions based on it because how we treat returning emigrants is a measure of our society. We should welcome them back and they should not face the barriers they experience. I refer, in particular, to health insurance companies, to which the Minister of State also alluded. I am not sure the Health (Amendment) Act 2017 is being applied as it should be. I have specific cases with the VHI in which a lead-in period was insisted on before cover would be provided.

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