Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Broughan again for raising this matter. It is, of course, of primary importance to the Government that the costs of doing business here are kept down. It is important for Ireland to be competitive, especially in the context of an approaching Brexit. That is why we have brought in a number of initiatives, in particular in respect of Brexit, such as low-cost loans. The Deputy rightly pointed out the issue of insurance costs, which has been raised frequently in the House. Much work is being done on this issue by the Government. We will have seen today that the European Commission will be carrying out a further investigation. I and the Government will not be commenting on that for the moment because the European Commission is independent. All this means that it is important in the extreme for Ireland, and all our businesses, to be competitive. We must bring costs down as much as possible to make that happen. That is why we are giving the CCPC these extra powers to bring us on a par with our European partners.

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