Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I commend the Regional Group on bringing this motion before the Dáil. It was, I think, in December 2019 that we last debated this legislation in the House. It is badly wanted legislation and has been talked about for a considerable length of time.

Much has been made of how the insurance industry has been impacted by perjury, false statements and false affidavits and of how this has resulted in an increase in premiums. I have a house full of teenagers at home, and when they go looking to get car insurance I realise immediately the huge impact of this. That is the case across the country. It is very positive for young people to learn to drive and to be able to drive at a young age. It gives them great confidence in life. They find, however, that insurance is a massive obstacle to their progression. Many of them who try to get summer work, particularly if they live in rural areas, need transport, specifically a car. They cannot afford that because of the cost of insurance.

In the area of commercial insurance, for various small shop owners and other businesses out there, the escalating cost of insurance has become one of the biggest costs they have to endure. While there are many reasons for this, the insurance industry continues to tell us this is because of the high premiums being paid. They point to fraudulent activity. Many of us, however, wonder whether the level of fraudulent activity is as extensive as the insurance industry claims it to be. Many of us doubt it is so high. When representatives of the insurance industry were before the finance committee last year, my colleague, Deputy Doherty, made it very clear to them that while they claimed that 20% of insurance claims were fraudulent, when they were asked whether they had reported those 20% of insurance claims to be fraudulent to An Garda Síochána, they had reported practically none of them. There is therefore a certain amount of exaggeration on the part of the insurance industry in that respect.

Another aspect of this is that there are people out there who go before the courts to claim insurance fraudulently and in other aspects of life use the courts and other measures to enrich themselves and others around them. They often lie in that context. That simply has to be stopped, and we must have a clear mechanism of doing so. The law to date does not do that. Going back hundreds of years, the idea of perjury has always been there. Previous generations held more store in swearing on the Bible, perhaps, than present generations have. Be that as it may, at the same time the reality is that when people go before a court they swear to tell the truth to their peers and to everyone around them. They should have the honour and the integrity to follow through on that but, unfortunately, many do not. It is important we have a clear definition of perjury and a clear set of penalties as to what stands if people do go down that road. This legislation does that.

I commend the former Senator, Pádraig Ó Céidigh, who brought this legislation to the Seanad previously and advanced it a long way along the road. But for the dissolution of the previous Dáil, it would probably be law by now. That is unfortunate, but we are back where we are, and I commend and thank the Government and the Minister for saying they will provide the opportunity to progress this as quickly as possible and, it is hoped, bring it into being.

There are also situations, not just in the insurance industry but in other circumstances, in which false accusations and falsehoods are brought about to damage people. We see this in various parts of life. Very often people are traumatised, and deep hurt can result in these circumstances. It is important we have a deterrent which is strong and ensures this does not happen. I am sure many Members of the Oireachtas dealing with the public will have come across such circumstances.

There is another aspect to this. People in the public are often talked about as being the ones who engage in this kind of activity. Of course, there is also perjury in the commercial sense. This is often described as white-collar crime and is a part of the criminal sector which gets little attention in this State or indeed in the western world in general. That aspect of perjury needs to be dealt with as well because many people suffer a lot of financial loss and huge trauma as a consequence of white-collar crime. I think much of that happens in the context of false affidavits, false documents being produced and so on. This leads us into the whole area of perjury when it comes before a court.

Finally, I commend the work that has been done in the past on all of this. When we all come together and work together to try to progress matters, we have a great power in this place. This Bill is an example of that, and I again commend it to the House. I hope we will move forward with due speed to bring it into law.

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