Pádraig O'Sullivan (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I have no doubt that the Minister of State is acutely aware of the considerable costs faced by businesses in the current environment. The price of energy and the costs of purchasing and processing materials are considerable. It is no different with insurance premiums. Recently, Brian Hanley of the Alliance for Insurance Reform said insurers told the group that reforms were necessary for premiums to come down and that reforms were introduced but that, instead, we were seeing record-breaking insurance company profits while premiums continue to rise. The chairman of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, Michael Kilcoyne, said insurers were being unfair to policyholders and that they were certainly not passing on the benefits they had received from the reforms. The Minister of State rightly outlined the benefits of all the reforms undertaken. Given the number of reforms achieved or at least initiated, we are 95% there. Although a considerable amount of reform has been achieved, how has the Office to Promote Competition in the Insurance Market specifically performed in this area? He mentioned OUTsurance as one example. Does he anticipate that many other insurance companies will be entering the market in the short term?

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