John Lahart (Dublin South West, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I commend my colleague, Deputy Kelleher, for bringing forward this Bill. There is a belief among the public that the State sides with the insurance companies. That is one argument. This Bill is really trying to side with the genuine consumer - the person who is genuinely injured - and with the insurance companies against fraud. This is a practical and long overdue piece of legislation. It beggars belief that the Government has not initiated such a Bill.

Almost from the first day of this Dáil, my colleague, Deputy Michael McGrath, highlighted the issue of spiralling insurance costs and it still rolls on. The Government seems to be like a rabbit stuck in headlights with its failure to bring forward real and practical solutions to the problem. The Bill before the House is a real and practical solution to part of the problem.

Business people have a litany of stories they tell public representatives with examples of fraudulent claims. These claims have often been left until the latest possible moment as the legal deadline window is about to expire. The cost to business people, which is then obviously passed on to the consumer, is profound with insurance premiums rising exponentially and dramatically. We have scandalously high insurance premiums as a result of this, in part as a result of the cost of litigating claims.

I ask the Minister to cast his mind back to March 2013. This date featured in an articled penned by Peter Murtagh of The Irish Timesthree years later in March 2016 because that was the length of time it took for the case to be prosecuted and arrive in court. It was a pretty surgical and forensic article, entitled Anatomy of a Scam. It is the story of exactly a scam when the plaintiffs were forced by the weight of evidence to abandon their case and withdraw it. Even the judge, Judge Linnane, said it was very clear this was a set-up.

What was scandalous was that no law enforcement officers were waiting at the back of the court to take some of these plaintiffs away in handcuffs, having clearly attempted to commit fraud in court. Subsequently it was not the State that stepped in, even though there appeared to be sufficient legal backup, but it was one of the insurance companies that approached the Garda with a request to prosecute this. That took place in May 2016. The State took no action against this scam.

The Government took no action against this scam, just as the Government's response to rising insurance costs for individuals, businesses, sports clubs and charities has been appalling. The Government has yet to establish a national claims information database. The Government has yet to tackle insurance fraud. The Government has yet to establish an anti-fraud unit in An Garda Síochána. All the while businesses, taxi drivers, charities, organisations and individuals face spiralling motor insurance costs.

Deputy Kelleher mentioned young drivers. Drivers with older cars and older drivers have essentially been put off the road by the rising cost of motor insurance. This Bill is part of Fianna Fáil's response to this issue. It is not our only response; we have proposed two or three other measures. This is a very practical measure to ensure that files for those individuals who are proven to have brought fraudulent cases will be passed directly to the Director of Public Prosecutions, DPP. Passing this Bill would represent a good day's work on the part of this House.

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