Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

This is what I cannot understand. The Minister of State says he is going to take action against the industry. The Tánaiste talked about it more than a year and a half ago, before the election, saying he was giving the insurance industry six months and that was it, after which the stick would come out. We in this House did our job. Representatives of the insurance industry came before the Oireachtas committee and said they would reduce premiums across the board by 15% to 20% and, if not, they would need to be asked tough questions. We did our job and the judicial council did its job. We all accept that awards have gone down, but premiums have not. Now is the time to bring out the big stick.

There is legislation before this House that has passed Second Stage and the Minister of State is stalling it. It is ridiculous. Similar legislation is in force in Britain and my Bill is about holding the exact same companies to account. There is no way that I, the Minister of State or anybody in this House will ever know what premiums should cost unless we collect the type of information provided for in that legislation. I ask him to stop stalling the Bill. It should be before the House next week.

I also want to ask the Minister of State what he is doing on the duty of care aspect. I mentioned a company in Dundalk that is going bust. Awards are coming down but we need to deal with the duty of care. There have been promises after promises in that regard. When will we see the legislation?

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