Dáil debates

Wednesday, 17 February 2021

Insurance (Restriction on Differential Pricing and Profiling) Bill 2021: Second Stage [Private Members]

 

11:45 am

Photo of Mattie McGrathMattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I compliment Deputy Doherty for his gallant and heroic efforts to deal with the insurance companies. It is an immoral and indecent racket that is not justified in any way, shape or form. I have been in business for 39 years; 40 years next year. I am talking about myself but the same issues apply to all others, whether small business people, clubs in communities, hillwalking clubs or whatever they are. We are all trying to do our best for the country but insurance companies keep ripping us off. Why would they not when Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil, Tweedledum and Tweedledee, have allowed them to do what they like? Of course, those insurance companies get big financial support and it is all very cosy. What is going on is a scandal.

Young people are trying to get insurance and when they read the fine print in the contract, they have none. During the pandemic, how many people had business interruption insurance? There were many; nearly everybody had it. I salute the four brave publicans who took a case to the High Court. The Central Bank, of course, should have taken the case, like the public agencies did in England, and forced FBD Insurance, the company in that particular case, and all other insurance companies to honour the commitments for which their customers have paid.

I remind every customer who has a policy that many of them have changed. The wording of their cover changes when policies are renewed at different times during the year, for example, in August and September. I urge customers to check it out. The cover will have changed from what they had and they will find that the small print has changed. Insurance companies are in the business of ripping people off, getting their money and paying out little. Every business has to make a profit but the insurance companies are blackmailing, blackguarding, gouging and betraying people, especially the elderly who have shown loyalty. I listened to Fran Curry's programme on Tipp FM this morning and some older people were talking about how their insurance premiums increased by a whopping 40% this year. Those people do not have the ability to shop around because they do not have the IT skills and everything else. Those people are being blackguarded. There is no loyalty. Insurance companies have deep pockets and have been aided and abetted by willing successive Governments for decades.

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