Results 3,721-3,740 of 12,320 for speaker:Paul Murphy

Ceisteanna ar Reachtaíocht a Gealladh - Questions on Promised Legislation (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: I do. How many times are the workers to be forced to come into the Visitors Gallery to hear the same answers, to protest and to strike for their right to join a union of their choice? The Government should instruct the HSE to stop wasting public money paying lawyers to talk to the workers because it refuses to do so itself. The HSE should sit down with the workers, stop its union busting...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: I wish to return to a figure Mr. Bradley gave us earlier. He said there was €19 million in fraudulent claims last year. He described that as 4% to 4.5% of the premiums.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Mr. Bradley would contend that the level of fraudulent and exaggerated claims is one of three factors to consider with regard to the high premiums people face.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Okay, but I will stay with the €19 million and the fraudulent claims, which are an important part of the narrative of the insurance industry. What were the company's profits last year?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Is €89 million four and a half times €19 million, approximately?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: That is about 20% of the total premiums. Would Mr. Bradley say it is fair to say that the extortionate profits made by the insurance companies are a substantially greater contributor to the very high levels of premiums than fraudulent claims?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Last year the company's profits made up approximately 20% of its total premiums whereas what Mr. Bradley described as fraudulent claims made up 4% to 4.5%.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Mr. Bradley describes €19 million as 4% to 4.5% so doing the mathematics upwards one ends up with close to 20% of the company's total premiums. Mr. McGrath referred to three factors and Mr. Bradley also referred to three factors. Why does Mr. Bradley not mention the very high profit rates in the company as being a contributing factor?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Let us look at it over a reasonable period of time. For example, the Central Bank figures, which are accurate, indicate that from 2002 there is a total profit of over €3 billion for insurance companies operating in Ireland. Is that not the case?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: I am certain that is the figure. We used it in the report we produced. At that stage it was €2.8 billion according to the Central Bank but since then there have been a couple of years of good profitability so it is over the €3 billion mark. That is a healthy enough profit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: If that €3 billion had not gone in profit to shareholders since 2002, would that not have resulted in a collective reduction in premiums of approximately €3 billion? It is the profit people pay for in their premium. They do not get any benefit from it.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: That is if one accepts that the insurance industry must be run on a for-profit rather than a non-profit basis. That is the premise and it is a private company. To follow that logic, the company's shareholders expect the company to make a profit so if the cost of claims were to be reduced, would the company not be under some pressure from its shareholders to see that a portion of that...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: If Mr. Bradley could see that a large portion of a reduction in the cost of claims could go to profits, would he not do that? That is how a company operates. It operates to maximise its profit.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Dr. Cyril Roux appeared before the committee during our hearings with the Central Bank and he described that as an act of faith - it is faith in the market that a high rate of profit will result in more entering and so forth. However, it is not the case that there is an automatic correlation between the cost of claims going down and premiums going down because there is an intermediate factor...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Mr. McGrath and Ms Muldoon should feel free to respond. I believe that the insurance companies have a deliberately crafted narrative about why people face such outrageously high premiums and it is about fraudulent and excessive or too high claims. What is always left out of the narrative, not coincidentally, is profit and the substantial profits made by the insurance companies over an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Insurance Sector: Discussion (4 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: The company will not take any of it in profits.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (9 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: We have to report it though.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (9 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: The voice of big oil.

Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí (Atógáil) - Leaders' Questions (Resumed) (9 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: Come off it.

An tOrd Gnó - Order of Business (9 Jul 2019)

Paul Murphy: They are not agreed to. We cannot agree to an Order of Business for the final sitting week before the summer recess that does not allow the Dáil to address the scandalous abuse of money messages by the Government. The Government has been acting in a manner that is completely undemocratic and arguably unconstitutional by using the denial of money messages to ensure Bills that have the...