Seán Sherlock (Cork East, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I accept the bona fides of the Minister of State but the response does not inspire me, to be honest. If the Central Bank was fulfilling its obligation as the "watchdog", it would already have the evidence. If the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, tell us it has investigated practices as far back as 2015 and 2016, what was the Central Bank doing in that period? There should already be a book of evidence on the matter.

I take the point that the Minister of State is making in respect of legislation but if a legislative proposal is brought before the House, we will look seriously at it and support it. Right now, people looking at this matter are demanding a robust response by the Central Bank, the Government and this Parliament.

The idea that lower introductory rates can be offered to new consumers of car insurance is not a competitive practice. It is not morally right if there is a penalty applied to a person who is loyal to a particular company. We know that is happening. It would not take a trawl through millions of pieces of data to get the required information as there are enough people in the insurance sector to yield it. There is enough of a body of evidence from consumers and the complaints they have made about this issue and the decisions made against insurance companies.

This comes down to the refusal to charge the same price for providing the same service to existing and new customers. It is really a form of pyramid scheme that makes sense only in the context of an exponentially expanding customer base. In other words, it makes absolutely no sense at all.

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