Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)

In motor insurance, it is 8%.

The Minister of State talks about Britain. Does he know what has happened there? Does he know what the ABI says about the 28,000 motor insurance policies it looks at every year? It has told us just in recent weeks that insurance has fallen 10%. What has happened under the Government's watch here? An 11.5% increase. People are getting ripped off left, right and centre and the Minister of State stands there reading scripts that the insurance industry would be proud of - that it probably wrote for him.

The Government will not deal with this issue unless the Minister of State recognises that there is a serious issue here in terms of the market. He talked about making submissions. I have done more than make submissions; I have drafted the legislation that would hold the insurance industry to account to make sure that the reforms are not to boost their profits but to be passed on to consumers. The Government - Fine Gael, Fianna Fáil, the Healy-Raes - are blocking that legislation. Why? All I have heard from Minister after Minister leads me to believe that they are basically puppets of the industry. That is why the insurance companies are charging the outrageous prices they are charging sports organisations, festivals, businesses and motorists the length and breadth of the country.

Until we get a Government that will stand up to the industry, this rip-off will continue. It should end now.

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