Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

We all hear the anger among small businesses, be they grocers, soft play areas, pubs and retail outlets, at the dramatic increase they face in insurance costs. The committee heard that at first hand. In some cases over a short period premiums have increased by 1,000%. In spite of that, there is no measurement in the State to measure the increase in insurance on small businesses. The National Competitiveness Council produced a report on the cost of doing business and it said insurance costs increased rapidly between 2013 and 2016 but they have been decreasing since then. It said the price of car and other transport insurance is roughly what it was in 2015, in line with the EU average. That is the best the National Competitiveness Council can do on the cost of doing business because it has no data whatsoever on the astronomical increases faced by small businesses, which is putting some of them to the wall. Two and a half years on from all the glossy reports, we have less transparency because we did have a certain degree of transparency. The blue book was published annually by the Central Bank but it has been withdrawn. The private motor insurance statistics were also published but they are no longer available. We have action point after action point but we have less transparency. Businesses are going to the wall because insurance companies can spin and refer to figures nobody else has and nobody can ask them what they are doing and they are putting people out of business because of the astronomical increases.

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