Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of the Deputies who contributed to the debate, each of whom said they were supporting the Bill and not opposing it which suggests it is non-contentious. I appreciate the comments of all the Deputies opposite and no doubt we will have more detailed discussions on Committee Stage in due course. Some Members said the Bill could do more and that is one of the points we will discuss.

Much of the commentary related to the fact that the Bill itself will not ban price walking but I want to be clear that that is the job of the regulator, the Central Bank. The Department of Finance is not the regulator. The Department of Finance is not the Central Bank. It is the job of the Central Bank to do this work, not the job of the Department of Finance. It is unfair to suggest that because the Department of Finance is not banning price walking, there is very little in the legislation. Deputies said that all we have done is put a timetable in place with regard to reporting from the Central Bank, and that is quite right. That is the job of the Department of Finance. As part of the overall Government approach, the Department's job is to make sure that various State bodies and agencies under its aegis do their job. It is not up to the Department of Finance to do everything here. The subcommittee includes the Department of Justice, the Department of Children, Equality, Disability, Integration and Youth and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. I can tell the House that the Department of Justice's duty of care legislation is at a very advanced stage. I expect it will be before the Cabinet in the very near future. We will see progress on that as this legislation progresses. It is a key element of the insurance reform package.

I want to draw a comparison with the personal injury guidelines which were drawn up by the Judiciary. The same comment could have been made by people as to why the Department of Finance did not draw up those guidelines or commission consultants to do so. We did not do so because it is the Judiciary that makes judgments on these matters when they go into court. The Judiciary drew up the guidelines and the sole function of the Department of Finance was to put a timetable into legislation by which the Judiciary would report. That is all we did in the Department of Finance on those two key measures. The Central Bank had one job to do and the Judicial Council had its job to do. All the Department had to do was give them a timetable to make sure the job was done. That is our function in this area, rather than doing everything ourselves. It is good way of working, whereby the relevant State agencies do the work on those areas.

Deputy O'Reilly mentioned a particular issue concerning new drivers and I will make inquiries on that. Everybody accepts that insurance companies should not benefit from State supports. As I said in my opening statement, this matter is still before the courts in certain cases so I am not going to comment on that particular topic. The issue of business interruption claims is still before the courts. While people might like me to comment on it, I am not in a position to do so; nor would it be appropriate to trespass on a matter that is before the courts. When we see the outcome of the court proceedings, we can discuss it at that stage.

Finally, Deputy Nash spoke about non-switchers being penalised and the issue of the lack of availability of insurance in some sectors of the economy. Most people have insurance policies but there are some pinch points in the country where there are difficulties. We are working on each of those, area by area, with the insurance industry and consumer representative bodies. I thank the Deputies for their comments. I commend the Bill to the House and look forward to it progressing to Committee Stage.

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