Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am delighted to be able to speak on the Civil Liability and Courts (Amendment) Bill 2018. I thank Deputy Kelleher for bringing it forward. The provision for the transfer of court transcripts to the Office of the Director of Public Prosecutions in cases where individuals have made fraudulent claims is long overdue and very welcome. I only hope that the Director of Public Prosecutions will have the resources, staff and appetite to deal with it. As Deputy Kelleher noted when introducing the Bill on First Stage, there is good evidence to suggest that, in order to factor in the cost of fraudulent claims, a large cost is built into the insurance premiums of businesses across the State, which leads to uncompetitiveness.

I have to declare that I am a businessman myself. I have insurance and it is just out of control. One pays for everything. One gets less and less cover while paying more and more. If the insurance companies were proactive and challenged the fraudsters they would do a lot better. Deputy Kelleher also reminded the House that evidence provided by Insurance Ireland and many other groups dealing with the matter indicates a systematic abuse of the courts process by fraudulent claimants and that businesses throughout the country have seen their public liability insurance increase by as much as 70% in the past four years. Some have seen increases of 100% and a startling 150%.

While all this is true, I still think the focus of the Bill is misplaced. Of course we need to challenge those who make fraudulent claims, but what of the insurance companies themselves that seek to manipulate the level of risk to justify exorbitant and scandalous increases in premiums? Deputy Stanton is a Government Minister. There was a report compiled; it went on for nearly two years and came up with something like 70 recommendations. A maximum of five would have done. That was passing the buck and diluting it further, so nothing came out of it. Who is going to challenge these people or these organisations when they submit highly misleading data on the nature of the risks they face in order to squeeze the last drop of financial blood from young drivers or from those seeking to renew their insurance cover? It is a cartel. If it looks like a cartel and walks like a cartel, it is a cartel. That is what it is. Whether someone is a young driver or an old driver, a haulier or working in plant hire, a shopkeeper or an undertaker, a hairdresser or a chemist, everyone is facing it. It is just beyond a joke. We are standing idly by while these people are forced out of business. They really are persecuted by these exorbitant rates and they have nowhere else to go.

I accept that the Bill before us needed to be targeted and specific, but it remains the case that we urgently need to introduce a system in this State whereby, when insurance companies cannot verify their pricing levels, a file be prepared and be sent to something akin to the fraud squad for investigation. Of course, the fraud squad is understaffed. There is no appetite across all the regulators and other bodies to deal with this. A blind person could see what is going on.

Last year we saw motor insurance providers in Ireland being subjected to a series of raids - which we welcome - as part of an investigation into suspected anti-competitive practices by agents from the European competition authorities. Europeans had to come in. It was not our own regulators or our own agents. They all seem to be - I will not say complicit - ignoring what is going on. The agents were accompanied by their counterparts from the Irish Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, during the operation. It is a case of bringing a horse to water but not being able to make it drink. Why did the CCPC not do this itself? Why did we have to have the Europeans come in? Everybody knows it is a scam.

In a statement the European Commission said it had, "concerns that the companies involved may have engaged in anti-competitive practices in breach of EU antitrust rules that prohibit cartels and restrictive business practices and/or abuse of a dominant market position". Anti-competitiveness is exactly what Deputy Kelleher said he hoped this Bill would tackle. It is just a pity it does not include the insurance companies as well as those who seek to rip them off, because they are all part of it. We saw the advertisement about the fraudulent claimants with their hands in our pockets on RTÉ for a long time, but the insurance companies have their hands in our pockets and they have the lining burst. They have gone down to the bottom of the cuffs of the trousers. They are just piling on the premiums and they do not care about the people they are hurting. As I have said, there are excesses for this and that and they will not challenge these cases. They will settle them on the steps of the court. One ends up paying out for a huge legal bill from both the insurance company and the claimant. It is farcical. The lawyers, the fat cats, have to take their share of the blame as well.

This stinks to high heaven. It is crippling our fledgling businesses, it is turning off entrepreneurs and it is destroying community groups, GAA clubs and whatever else one could name. There were nightclub owners in here telling us about 200% increases in their premiums. We cannot afford it. When people are intoxicated and fall down steps in a nightclub, cognisance must be taken of such things. We cannot have a kindergarten minding people inside the nightclub. We must have realpolitikhere. We must tackle the insurance companies as well as the fraudsters because they are all in it together. Money is going around but he who pays the piper calls the tune. People are tired of paying the piper. They cannot afford to do it any more. This is damaging jobs.

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