Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I return to an issue I raised 11 months ago. In May, four small pubs launched a High Court action against one of the biggest players in the insurance industry, FBD Insurance. The judgment is to be handed down tomorrow. The case was taken over FBD's refusal to pay out on business interruption as a result of Covid-19 and thousands of businesses hold similar policies with FBD and, indeed, other insurers. Last month the Financial Conduct Authority, FCA, in Britain won a similar case in the Supreme Court taken on behalf of policy holders. Our Central Bank took no such action. Whatever tomorrow's ruling may be, and that will be independent of everything else, we risk seeing a tidal wave of litigation which would be costly and slow for thousands of businesses. There is an alternative. Will the Tánaiste support me in calling for the Central Bank to put in place an examination similar to the tracker mortgage examination where there is an audit of policies, clear expectations set for insurers and intrusive supervision by the Central Bank with strict enforcement and heavy sanctions for insurers that fail to live up to these expectations? It is time for the Central Bank to defend the interests of these businesses.

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