Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The National Claims Information Database was published today by the Central Bank of Ireland. It shows eye-watering profits by the insurance industry again. This is on the backs of ordinary people, community groups, sports organisations and small businesses the length and breadth. They have seen their premiums go up every single year. It is in the claims database that premiums are rising at a huge level. We have seen them go up in the past ten years by 56%. It is unrelenting but the most galling fact is the profit margins the industry is making. Industry representatives told the finance committee when we were passing claims reform in this House that it targets a 5% profit margin. That is the norm. They are now recording 13%. It was 14% last year and double digits the year before. The reality is that this industry is fleecing its customers. It is pocketing massive profits and making triple what they expected to make and this do-nothing Government is sitting by and allowing this to happen. The victims here are the organisations in the street. I have heard Government representatives talk about insurance over and over, but it is black and white here that they are fleecing their customers. These are bonanza profits. What is the Minister going to do because the Government has done nothing about this for the past number of years?

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