Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

One of the things I found early in this process was that different companies have very different business models. There is a very great difference between FBD's model and Aviva's model. They all operate and they are all profitable but they all operate in different ways. One of the biggest issues in the conversations we will have in these Houses will be the capping of claims. As I have said, it is a civil matter. Are these Houses able to get involved? I do not know. We have asked the Attorney General for his view. He is strongly of the view that we should go down the route of the Law Reform Commission and ask it to put together a report to which stakeholders could contribute.

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Subsequent to that, we will see what can happen. People have access to courts, as allowed for in our written Constitution.

For me, there are pathways that have to be improved. With regard to data and imagery, I mentioned that people should have the opportunity to protect themselves. On too many occasions, I have heard people say they were told 18 months after the event that there was a claim coming and that they had no method of protecting themselves. That is wrong so we are going to rectify it.

I met the Minister for Justice and Equality, who just left the Chamber, and we are satisfied the analysis was that the legislation in place was sufficiently strong to deal with somebody making a fraudulent or exaggerated claim and did not need to be improved. However, where a judge in a case says some part of a claim has been exaggerated or is fraudulent, we have to improve the pathway between the parties in court and between the Garda and DPP. In the context in question, however, the sanction is sufficiently strong but the pathway was poor. We are, therefore, trying to do everything I have described. The process is to be concluded by the end of the third quarter of this year. We will be in a position to have many of the recommendations concluded. The focus on people who are fraudulent is one thing but the Deputy should note that, for every fraudulent claim, there are many more exaggerated claims. In Ireland, people do not view an insurance payout as the sum of money required to put one back in the position one was in before the event leading to the claim; they ask how much they can get out of it. We must try to defeat that.

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