Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

On the day that is in it, I send good wishes and love to everybody in the Chamber. Those of us on this side of the House sent a Valentine's card to the Tánaiste and the Government. Unfortunately, we gave it to the Minister for Health so it might be a few months before they get it but I am sure they will eventually get it.

Small businesses throughout the country are not receiving any love from their insurance companies. I caught the end of the Minister for Finance's interaction with Deputy Burton. Small businesses, farms, marts and festivals are being hammered by increasing insurance costs, particularly business insurance costs. I do not know if the Tánaiste heard it but I would encourage him to listen to Tuesday's edition of "Today With Sean O'Rourke" over the weekend. That edition focused on play centres in particular and the hit they are taking. One case in Navan involves a lady called Linda Murray who runs a centre employing 12 people that hosted 20,000 children last year. Her costs have gone from €2,000 in 2012 to €16,000 in 2018 without a claim. She is being advised that she cannot get a quote in 2019. The insurance companies in this sector are beginning pull plant because Ireland is seen as such an outlier by the insurance industry. If she was operating in the UK, she would get a quote - one that would be much lower. We are talking about 12 jobs in a business that has been operating for seven years, involving very hard work, and that has a very high reputation. Some 20,000 children in Navan being completely discommoded. Similarly, the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach and the Joint Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine are being told about marts throughout the country having to close. Community events such as street festivals are affected. Some 75 community festivals alone have shut down in the past few years because of increased insurance costs.

Meanwhile nothing is happening. Yes, there have been reductions in the cost of motor insurance because motor insurance is trackable and accessible but when it comes to this kind of insurance, there is a mystery behind it. Business owners cannot see why their costs are increasing and what kind of claims are being settled. Meanwhile the Government, once again, has its head in the sand. On "Today with Sean O'Rourke" the other day, the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy D'Arcy, acknowledged that the level of claims in this country was the problem but this has been known for 19 or 20 months since it came forward in the report. Yet it was only yesterday that the Minister for Justice and Equality wrote to the Chief Justice to ask him to do something about it. In the meantime, 75 festivals, marts and small businesses throughout the country have gone to the wall. What is the Government going to do about it? Does it understand the seriousness of the situation facing small businesses? Once and for all, can the Government stand up for small businesses against the might of the insurance industry?

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