Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I commend the work done by the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Business, Enterprise and Innovation and in particular, its report on the cost of doing business. It is a positive indication of the commitment of the members of that committee that it produced a report containing 50 recommendations. Not all of the recommendations relate to the Department of Business, Enterprise and Innovation but we have taken action on those that do. We are very conscious of the high costs of doing business in certain areas. Indeed, Deputy Eamon Ryan has also submitted a question on the costs of doing business in this country. Insurance costs contribute to the overall costs of doing business here, including labour costs, rates and so on. It is very important that we highlight problems in the insurance sector, as has been done by the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, and others. The legislation to which I referred earlier will contribute to bringing down the cost of insurance. As I said already, if one compares the cost of insurance in 2017 with 2018 and 2019, one will see that it is falling. We hope that it will fall further as a result of the various measures that the Government has put in place.

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