Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I would be interested to hear whether the tender process that has been already agreed can proceed.

Many people in my constituency of Donegal and in rural areas, in particular, are waiting for broadband. This process has been something of a shambles with deadlines missed repeatedly.

The programme for Government states that the Government will alleviate pressures on household budgets and refers to a number of those pressures such as energy, childcare, medical and insurance costs. I wish to focus on the latter one. Yesterday morning, the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, was on radio trying to explain away the huge increases being faced by soft play centres and other businesses. He referred to whiplash, which I do not believe occurs in these play areas. He then used the excuse that some members of the Judiciary are awarding "bananas, off the wall amounts". Does the Taoiseach agree with the Minister of State offering that reason and blaming the Judiciary? The Minister of State blamed the Minister for Justice and Equality at one point in the interview as well.

However, the soft play areas have a serious problem. In Donegal, premiums increased from €2,500 in 2017 to €6,500 in 2018. That is a 160% increase even though there was no claim. A centre in Inishowen in Donegal closed down citing high insurance costs as the reason. The cost of insurance went from €2,500 to €16,000 for a company in Meath over a period of five years, again with no claims. The problem is that there is a monopoly. No insurance company in Ireland will quote for these companies while only one insurance company in Britain will. The working group set up by the Government is simply failing and the Minister of State is blaming the Judiciary as well as his colleagues in the Department of Justice and Equality for blocking his plan A or B. He is now on plan C, D or something of that nature. When will we see serious action on this, such as through the Garda fraud unit or action on the insurance industry, and less of the blame game?

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