Fionntán Ó Súilleabháin (Wicklow-Wexford, Sinn Fein)

The insurance rip-off, which is what it is, affects every single household, every motorist, every business, every community and every group across this land. We are all getting fleeced by a cartel of insurance companies that are making two to three times more profit here in Ireland than they are in other countries. It is a gangster's paradise basically. That is not speculation; it is fact. It hiked up motor insurance by a massive 11.5% last year, four times the rate of inflation. Many young people in my area of rural north Wexford and south Wicklow have to have a car to get to work but are getting punished by these gangsters for driving to work.

Health insurance costs that a lot of people are forced to have - over 2.5 million people in the State have to have private health insurance now - have been hiked by over 50% on pre-Covid levels. Many of those people were those who were already struggling to hold on to their insurance. A lot of people I know are dropping their health insurance and coverage at the moment.

Home insurance costs are crazy. Public liability costs are forcing the closure of businesses and the ending of many community events that make Ireland what it is. Four years ago, in my area, a local children's recreational park in County Wicklow faced closure due to skyrocketing insurance costs, which were hiked from €26,000 to €88,000, which is incredible, despite the company not having made one single claim. Another town in Wicklow that used to hold great summer festivals no longer does so due to the high cost of public liability insurance.

Basically, rocketing insurance costs and burdensome regulations in Ireland are operating in an insurance cartel's paradise. They are ripping the very fabric of Ireland apart. They are ripping society apart. The Government is doing absolutely nothing about it while at the same time letting companies make 17% profit margins.

For over a decade, my colleague here in front of me, Pearse Doherty, and Sinn Féin in general have been producing legislation to end this great insurance rip-off, yet the Government simply will not act on it. I have no idea why. The Government needs to support the legislation tonight, rein in these cowboys, stand up to them, make them accountable and force them to pass on the obscene profits they are making to the people they are ripping off. We are all getting ripped off by this. It is absolutely changing the fabric of Irish society. The Government has to support this legislation tonight.

See this speech in context