Rose Conway-Walsh (Mayo, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

Businesses are now making crucial decisions as to whether they will reopen. This is happening every day of the week, yet we still see insurance companies fighting tooth and nail to cripple the same small businesses. These are the businesses that have come through the recession and battled through everything. I spoke yesterday evening to a businesswoman who has been in business for 40 years. She does not know whether she will be able to continue in business. Affected businesses are employing many people, particularly in rural areas and small towns. The insurance companies continue to play with the words but they are also playing with people's livelihoods and those of their communities. They are doing so on two fronts, as the Minister knows. First, they are flatly refusing to honour claims made through the business interruption clauses, even where the policy document is very explicit and states the business is covered in instances where a national or local government instructs temporary closure.

One of the pillars of insurance, which is compulsory after all, is good faith. When business interruption insurance is taken out, it is done in good faith on the grounds that the insurance company will provide cover in the event of a loss. Therefore, there are many business owners who consider the immoral behaviour of the insurance industry as theft.

Some insurance companies are refusing to refund even part of a premium while a business is closed. Has the Minister sought uniformity across the insurance industry in respect of its approach to businesses that have been closed? He spoke about this earlier but it is not happening on the ground. I am speaking to businessowners every day who tell me their insurance companies are showing complete inflexibility towards them.

In Britain, the Financial Conduct Authority is seeking a court judgment on behalf of businesses to clarify the issue. As Deputy Donohoe is the Minister in charge here, is he considering doing the same thing? Are any instruments of sanction available to him to take control of the situation in regard to the insurance industry and to ensure it acts in an ethical manner?

Sinn Féin has written to the Central Bank to ask whether it will take similar actions here. I presume the Minister has had similar conversations with the Central Bank. I remind him that it is precisely for scenarios such as this that Sinn Féin tried in vain to progress the Multi-Party Actions Bill in 2017. That would have been a game-changer, enabling groups of cases that share characteristics sufficiently to be dealt with collectively. Currently, the only real option is for a test case to proceed and related cases to follow subsequently on that basis. Justice delayed is justice denied for many of the small businesses that do not have the financial capacity to take on the might of the insurance industry. Does the Minister agree that blocking the legislation was wrong and that it should be revisited?

On the banks, I thank the Minister for the information. He had a conversation with the banks on the way they are increasing outstanding balances by thousands of euro because under the current payment breaks, interest will still continue to accrue. Has the Minister advised the banks that this is unacceptable?

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