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

I thank my Sinn Féin colleague, Deputy Doherty, for the painstaking work he has done in taking on the insurance industry. He has done this in a hostile environment where those who fiercely defend the status quoallows the insurance industry to dictate how much and how often it demands money from policyholders. Unfortunately, this has been facilitated by compliant governments that have adopted the role of spectator rather than legislator. Insurance is a legal requirement. Preventing policyholders from being robbed should also be a legal requirement.

Today's Bill provides the opportunity for Fianna Fáil, Fine Gael, the Green Party and others to stand up to the vested interests in the insurance industry. It is time to make a stand for drivers and for homeowners who are being fleeced by price gouging. Many of these are their elderly constituents or those who are already marginalised because they do not have the technological know-how, time or broadband connectivity to shop around. They are depending on us to stand up for them by demanding transparency and fairness in the insurance industry. They are depending on us to end the rip-off and wrestle the raw data from those who have fought so hard to protect the system that enables insatiable greed to run riot.

When I was on the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, I remember Dorothea Dowling fought so hard to get this raw data. Dual pricing is just one of the practices that allow this greed to use the information on policyholders to extract the maximum amount of money from hard-pressed individuals and families. A fundamental reform of the insurance industry is long overdue. This Bill is another step by Sinn Féin in the right direction.

Leave the party politics behind for today and put our constituents first. It is time to abandon dual pricing.

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