Richard O'Donoghue (Limerick County, Independent Ireland Party)

I met a man during the week who married a woman from County Tipperary. This is actually laughable. When the woman he married moved from County Tipperary to County Limerick, and went to renew her car insurance premium with the same company she has been insured with for the past 20 years, they charged her €179 more because she had moved to County Limerick. Even though the same person is driving the same car, she is being charged more because she got married and moved to County Limerick. When we tried to find out the reasoning for this, we were told it is all down to computer assessments on insurance claims within each different county, whatever it is. It does not matter whether you are in the city or the county; you are within the county bounds and that is what it says. Is an insurance company not supposed to cover all of Ireland rather than singling out individual places? Why is it the case that if you go to Galway you get one quote, if you go to Kerry you get another quote, if you go to Tipperary you get another quote and if you go to Limerick you get a different quote again? How can it be possible to have different car insurance quotes for different counties?

In the case of housing insurance, inflation means that the value of your property will have jumped over the past four years. A 1,000 sq. ft house that had a valuation of €120,000 and rebuild costs of €140,000, is now on €240,000 rebuild costs. It is the same house that was there ten years ago but the rebuild costs mean you pay a higher premium. It is the same house, but the premium is higher. In the case of health insurance, it is the same thing - up, up, up - but the ordinary person pays more.

You can raise the minimum wage and all the different wages as high as you like, but all it is going to do is drive inflation and put more taxes into the Government pocket for it to waste on non-delivery. That is what is happening. These increases drive inflation. We pay double the price for the same product and we get less from the Government. It is not something for the Minister of State to smile about. I saw the Minister of State smiling a minute ago, but he is not smiling now. Why do these delivery issues persist? I am building all my life. Does the Minister of State think that if I went out tomorrow morning to take on a project and I came in at a loss, I would be in business today? The Government can come in at a loss on every project and it is still here. All it is doing is raising taxes, raising everything and getting no value for money. No matter what the Government does with people's wages, it is pricing them out of the market in every sector. Not only that, but it is allowing all the insurance sectors do the same. There is no accountability across the board.

The Government looks at medical insurance from the point of view of viability. People tell me they need to pay for private insurance because they are afraid that something will happen to their children and they will not get help. They tell me that if they go public, they could be waiting for six or eight months. A person rang me last night who has four clots. When he met the consultant, the consultant told him he would have to wait between six and 12 months to be seen. He has four clots. He is paying for private insurance. He was told that in the public system, he could be waiting up to two years. How can we stand here and allow this to go on and on, with no accountability? It has to stop somewhere. The inflation in every sector across the board has to stop. The Minister of State, Deputy Troy, has to stand up and say, "No." He has to stand up and tell them to stop. He has to stand up and cap them, and make them accountable for people so they can live and have cover.

See this speech in context