Bobby Aylward (Carlow-Kilkenny, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

All I can speak about is the experience. Small and medium-sized enterprises, SMEs, say the insurance is killing them and its cost is increasing all the time. I do not know where the percentage reductions mentioned by the Minister of State are, because that is not the reality. I can give another example involving a member of my family. He is a young fellow who did the theory test, passed it, had 12 driving lessons and passed his second driving test after failing the first. When he looked for insurance quotations they were for thousands of euro. The insurance actually cost more than a car. When his father and mother tried to put him on their insurance as a named driver, they were quoted €2,000 and €3,000. I even tried to put him on my insurance for my commercial farming vehicle at home with my insurance company. It quoted €900 for eight months. That is extravagant. No young person will ever get on the insurance ladder unless we do something, and this is the place to do something to try to reduce the cost of insurance.

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