Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I assure Deputy Michael Moynihan that the Government is taking this issue very seriously. The Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, has been taking responsibility for this. He has led an initiative that has, from memory, 33 actions, including legislation actions, to bring about change in this area. There has also been an improvement in the operation of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB. Issues remain to be addressed, however, and the Minister of State is continuing his work. We need far greater data transparency from the insurance sector so we can see exactly what is happening.

The EU has stepped in to raise questions about whether the data sharing initiative is acting to impede competition. While no findings have been made at this point, that is an important investigation. I assure the Deputy that we will be continuing to scrutinise every aspect of this issue, including the legal costs, the fraud elements and the data sharing. All of those aspects are being scrutinised by the Government with a view to resolving this matter. As the Taoiseach stated earlier, however, it is the insurance companies that must decide what premia they quote. The Government cannot tell insurance companies to set premia, so we have to operate on the framework to make it as effective as possible.

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