Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The Minister of State is new in the brief but I have heard nothing from him that is new. The one factor that is constant in all of this is that people are being ripped off. Motor insurance has increased by 12% since 2022. I am sure the Minister of State knows all about the increases from having to insure his house. A significant number of people are seeing their insurance premium go up, and not only by €300, €400 or €500. What is happening in the insurance industry is ridiculous.

Insurance brokers argue that it is due to the cost of construction, but the latter has not increased to that level. The profits of this industry are at record highs. They are huge, yet the number of claims and the value of the awards that have been paid through the courts and other bodies are decreasing. What is happening here is the profits of the industry are increasing, the premiums are going up and it is punters - ordinary people - who are suffering. They are looking to the Government for action.

I introduced legislation that would force insurance companies to do what happens in the North and in Britain, which is to give an account of whether they are passing on the savings being made. Why is the Government blocking that legislation? Perhaps as a new Minister of State, Deputy Troy will stop blocking that legislation and allow it to pass.

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