Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I do not know if the Minister is aware of what is happening out in the real world. She has spoken about the action plan and so on. Businesses and community groups are not seeing a reduction. The vast majority are seeing increases in their insurance premiums. That is not just me talking. I ask the Minister to talk to the campaigners in the Alliance for Insurance Reform who represent a wide section of society. They have told the Minister time and time again that they have carried out surveys. We can see it in the statistics. There have been small reductions in motor insurance, but these have been nowhere near where they need to be. In terms of public liability insurance, community groups, sporting organisations, businesses, play areas and all the rest are suffering as a result of high insurance costs. Some have had to close down. It is a key issue. The Minister has missed deadlines twice. She talked about bringing proposals to Cabinet in April, and she cannot still give us a date, a year later, of when the legislation is going to be produced. The Minister has stated that she will not bring forward stand-alone legislation because it would take too long, although if Government had really gripped the issue, it would have been done and dusted by now. I ask the Minister to at least publish the amendments in order that we can see whether the Government understands what is really required in the context of balancing the duty of care. Is the Minister in a position to publish amendments at this point? Obviously, there will be no pre-legislative scrutiny if the Minister is just amending existing legislation.

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