Pat Casey (Wicklow, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome Deputy Michael McGrath's continued focus on the crippling costs of business and motor insurance. I also welcome the presence of business owners in the Visitors Gallery, as well as representatives from my industry, the hotel sector.

The unsustainable increases in insurance premia have reached a stage where workable businesses with long-standing records in communities are now wondering whether they have a viable future. Regretfully in the hotel sector, public liability claims are now becoming the norm. I have almost 30 years' experience in the business and have witnessed various spikes in insurance costs over that time. What is happening today, however, I have never witnessed before. I had a public liability claim free record for over ten years until a relatively small claim two years ago. As a result of this, I witnessed in this two-year window an increase in insurance costs of over 200%. My costs have moved from a five-figure to a six-figure sum. No business can sustain that level of increase. The double whammy of an insurance system that receives its profits from premia from business owners, along with a legal system which sustains large claims for the smallest of incidents, incentivises this culture of claim and uncontested pay-out.

The other injustice is the burden unfairly carried by the small business sector. Chains of hotels or group hotels, for example, carry a larger influence and weight with the insurance industry while the single operator is at its mercy.

In Ireland we rely on small owner-operators. The Irish small and medium business sector is the foundation of our economic model but the current insurance regime is out of control and will close Irish businesses unless action is taken. That is why we have Governments. That is why we in this House are elected. If there is injustice in the market, we have a duty to fix it. I welcome the determination of Deputy Michael McGrath to focus on solutions in regard to insurance. I urge the Government to act.

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