Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

That is perfect. I am sure the Minister of State's new boss will be as good to him as his predecessors were. I will note that the Minister has not started in the same way as his predecessors did. When there was a clash with the ECOFIN meeting and the budget in the past his predecessor asked the Minister of State at the Department of Finance to travel to the ECOFIN meeting. The Minister of State was Michael D'Arcy at the time and he represented Ireland at the ECOFIN meeting while the Minister for Finance was here delivering the budget. Obviously the Minister of State's boss has decided to bring forward the budget and not have the Exchequer returns for September available to him. He was not the only predecessor of the Minister who asked Ministers of State to represent them. The Minister of State's predecessor, Deputy Carroll MacNeill, represented the Minister for Finance as late as last year at the ECOFIN meeting. This raises the question, as I asked the Minister earlier, as to why he did it.

I have a Bill before the Dáil which the Government supported but stalled for a year. It is now before the committee. I want a clear answer on whether the Minister supports the Bill. It would hold the insurance industry to account and force it to state whether it is passing on all of the savings to customers or whether it is pocketing them. I believe it is pocketing a portion of the savings.

See this speech in context