Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

While in opposition in 2017, Fianna Fáil said the Government could not continue to be allowed dodge the issue of the high cost of insurance. Five years later and after two years in government, this is exactly what Fianna Fáil is doing. It has done nothing to help the people, whether young people, businesspeople, voluntary groups or the local communities that are trying to organise events. Everybody is being crippled by the ever-increasing cost of insurance. It has to be said that compensation culture plays a part in this. I want to make a clear distinction here. If a person has an injury or damage is done to his or her property, of course he or she should be adequately compensated. If somebody's body is hurt or damaged due to an accident, of course that person should be compensated adequately. However, every one of us is aware of bogus claims that are going on. You do not have to be a public representative to know about or have experience of bogus claims. Everybody in all walks of life knows a person who has feigned or exaggerated injury. Somebody has to pay for that. Who is paying for that? It is every one of us, every person who has the responsibility of paying an insurance premium. Something will have to be done. It is like an industry at the moment and that is wrong. It is not free money.

The Alliance for Insurance Reform recently told the Joint Committee on Enterprise, Trade and Employment that the ongoing high cost of insurance is threatening the future of more than 40% of commercial and voluntary organisations in the State. That is totally ridiculous. There are groups of people trying to do work and organise events and all of a sudden they are having to shut them down because they quite simply cannot afford the cost of insurance. It is wrong beyond belief. The Minister of State has failed, this Government has failed and previous Governments have failed.

The Irish Hotels Federation held its most recent conference in March. Hotels in County Kerry raised a motion calling for urgent action to address spiralling hotel insurance costs, which they say have risen by an average of 20% year on year. The former president of the IHF, Elaina Fitzgerald Kane, has said that insurance costs are one of the most serious challenges facing the sector, with a third of properties, 35%, experiencing difficulties in securing insurance cover. People cannot have discos and nightclubs are finding it impossible. There is no such thing as personal responsibility anymore. If a person falls now in Ireland, somebody will have to pay them to get up. That is bloody well ridiculous. If people do something stupid of their own accord, it does not automatically mean somebody has to pay them a lump of money to get up off their backsides. I will stop but the Acting Chair will be interested in this himself-----

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