Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. We have done more than just produce a paper on this but have produced legislation. I look forward to the Tánaiste's views on this and we will have an opportunity to discuss and debate this on Second Stage shortly.

The key thing for me is if this sort of oversight is brought in, it says very clearly to the insurance industry that it has to show clearly that every single euro that has been saved as a result of reduced awards has been passed on to the customers. Over the past seven days, I have quizzed and grilled five of the major insurance companies in the finance committee. Some of them have suggested that these personal injury guidelines, which only took effect last month, have been factored into premium reductions as far back as five and six months ago, which is absolute nonsense. That is why we need an mechanism for all of these companies. The six largest companies in Ireland are also the six largest companies in Britain and they abide by this regulation, which the UK Parliament passed into law, which forces the industry to show that it has passed on these savings euro for euro. I would welcome this type of commitment because as I have said previously, this is an industry that we cannot take at face value and we have a duty here to ensure that the laws that we pass are having the desired effect, which is that the customers are benefiting and not the companies.

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