Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú. The Government is aware and we have discussed the difficulties being experienced by a small number of sectors in insuring some of their events and festivals. We do not take lightly the challenges that they and other areas have experienced with regard to the availability and affordability of insurance. We engaged with a range of stakeholders, including Fáilte Ireland, to understand the depth and scope of that. As the Deputy is aware and we said before, neither the Minister for Finance nor the Central Bank of Ireland can interfere in either the provision or the pricing of insurance products to specific businesses or individuals. That position, as we have discussed, is reinforced by the EU Solvency II directive insurance framework.

Local authorities are responsible of course for their own insurance provision, including the terms and conditions of same and the Government has no direct role in that regard. However, both the Minister, Deputy Michael McGrath, and I, have raised the Deputy’s concerns and similar issues directly with the CEOs of insurance firms, including with industry representatives such as Insurance Ireland. Furthermore, both I and officials from the Department have spoken to providers in the activities and festivals sectors and are aware of some potential developments, which may be of assistance. We will continue to work on that in the coming weeks and I will continue to monitor the area as it progresses. It has been a feature of the Irish insurance market historically that some smaller sectors have traditionally been dependent on specialist UK providers passporting into Ireland. As a consequence of the UK’s decision to leave the EU, that practice ended. It became much more expensive and difficult for niche underwriters from the UK to provide their products here. That is beyond the direct control of the Government. However, we have tried to help in other ways. I have spoken with the Deputy before about assisting various sectors in coming together about pricing insurance difficulty. I might pick that up on the supplemental.

See this speech in context