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

I thank the Deputy for highlighting the issue of the insurance market in Ireland. It is a key priority for this Government and, as he will be aware, we have established a Cabinet subgroup on insurance reform, chaired by the Tánaiste. Several Departments sit on the quarterly group meeting. The Department of Finance has a key role because insurance is a regulated industry. It comes directly under the purview of that Department because the Central Bank regulates that industry.

There are three major forms of insurance in Ireland. The motor insurance market is the biggest section with approximately 2.5 million vehicles on the roads. There have been significant price reductions consistently in recent times in that sector. Every day somebody says they made a phone call when they got their premium and got a reduction. The next biggest market is home insurance. Practically every house, but not every house, in Ireland has home insurance. It is a big market and the Central Bank is introducing measures on 1 July. We have legislation to ensure that happens, which went through the Dáil in the past couple of weeks and is now going through the Seanad. That will come in and should bring about a reduction in house insurance.

The Deputy rightly pointed out that business insurance is the most difficult issue because every business is different. Cars and motorists are a fairly homogenous group. We have done much in that area in terms of competition. Until recently, there were issues relating to childcare. One company that covers that entire sector is offering an attractive package and reducing its premiums. They want competition in the sector, which will happen now it is deemed to be profitable and there is a consistency of approach. Play Activity and Leisure Ireland, PALI, a play activity centre group, is the new broker that has come, with a major new international insurance company, into the market in recent weeks and taken over the entire sector. There will always be individual sectors and a number of improvements, which I will elaborate on, are being worked on.

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