Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The issue of insurance reform probably affects every citizen in the State, in particular those who are driving and working. Car insurance is one of the key issues that needs to be dealt with because, in spite of the claims by various insurance companies about what will happen once claims come down through PIAB and all the measures we have to bring them down, we still have very high insurance costs in this country for motoring. That needs to be dealt with. The issue is that it is a private cartel. They are looking after each other and comparing prices with each other, and the public is suffering at the end of it.

In recent days I spoke to a community group in a town near me that runs a festival every year. Because of Covid, the festival has not happened for the last number of years. Now they are back up and running and hoping to run it again. They cannot find a company that will cover their insurance for that type of on-the-street music festival. That is a serious issue for our tourism industry and for commerce in many towns in which a weekend like that is a little bonus, bringing a few extra people around, and they can hopefully try to manage with it. However, they cannot get insurance. If they cannot get insurance, they cannot run these events.

The Minister of State has engaged with the insurance industry, but the process is taking far too long. These problems are immediate. The organisers cannot say they will leave the festival for another year and hopefully get insurance next year or the year after. When a community does not go ahead with an event like that, it dies and never comes back again.

The Minister for Justice announced earlier that she is hoping to bring forward proposals which will mean that there will be more personal responsibility for people. That is welcome and good but it does not come fast enough to relieve the problems people face. There are community projects and events that cannot go ahead and businesses that cannot operate, particularly in leisure and other industries like that. For instance, people who run bouncy castle businesses cannot get insurance or are finding it very difficult to do so. I have been contacted by businesses that run adventure sports involving kayaking, stuff on rivers and all that sort of thing. It is extremely difficult for them to get insurance, and they are priced out of it all the time. There are probably only one or two companies in the country quoting for those kind of activities right now. The Government needs to get a grip on this and deliver, not in the long term but in the very near term. Before the end of this summer, we need to see real change in the insurance industry.

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