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

I welcome the Central Bank regulations seeking to ban dual pricing. I commend my colleague, Sinn Féin's finance spokesperson, Deputy Doherty, who has painstakingly and relentlessly pursued this issue. That is known the length and breadth of this country. It is disappointing that the legislation will not ban the practice but will simply require the CBI to produce a report on the impact of the regulations. This Bill will see the Central Bank collect information on the insurance companies interpreting business disruption claims in a manner that has led to the deduction of State supports from businesses during Covid. Insurance companies have engineered a transfer of State supports provided to businesses across the State during Covid to boost their own profits. Insurance companies have stripped thousands of euro from policyholders' awards by deducting the value of State supports such as wage supports and rates waivers.

The Minister of State said that the Government was responding to the issue and that insurance companies would not be let off the hook, and now, months later, this is what the Minister of State has brought forward. In truth, this legislation in many ways looks like a political response, that is, an attempt to be seen to be doing something. The Minister of State's own Department stated that business supports should not be seen to be subsidising the insurance industry, nor should the industry be seen to be indirectly benefiting from taxpayers' money. The legislation is a weak and inadequate response to what is essentially the hijacking of public money. If this is in line with the established insurance principle of indemnity, as the insurance industry has argued, we need to address that head-on. This legislation does not force insurance companies to return wrongfully accrued savings to the State, nor does it ban the practice in the future. All it does is require the Central Bank to report on this practice. Ordinary workers cannot be asked to subsidise insurance companies. We need far more than information collection.

The public rightly expected the Government to go after the insurance companies for this money. I think what gets to people is that we have seen this Government pursue people beyond the grave for the smallest amounts of money where people have made minor mistakes in claiming payments, maybe an unemployment payment or a pension payment. People in their 80s and 90s are penalised and criminalised for not ticking a box or failing to disclose even the most modest savings. That is why people see this as the insurance companies and the insurance industry getting off while they are pursued, as I said, beyond the grave, and it is not right. It seems, as always, like there is one rule for ordinary people and another rule for the insurance industry, banking and big business in this country.

Action needs to be taken to ensure the Government retains the ability to support businesses in emergency situations without business being at risk or simply being transferred over to large insurance corporations. This is evident in the fact that the Government continues to drag its feet in addressing the duty of care. We know that small businesses, sporting organisations and community groups continue to close down or to struggle due to a lack of affordable insurance. Despite promises in election manifestos and the programme for Government, we still have not seen any legislation in this regard. The Tánaiste, who chairs the Government subgroup on insurance reform, promised that legislation to reform the duty of care would be published by September 2021. This is a threat to jobs and our economy. This Government's approach to insurance reform has always been and continues to be as little as possible and as late as possible, and people really will not stand for that any more. This Bill, while welcome, needs to do an awful lot more to tackle the insurance industry.

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