Results 721-740 of 10,460 for speaker:Gerry Horkan

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (15 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: I thank the Minister. There is a very tight timeframe. I have to ask Members to be as brief as they can. I do not want to curtail debate, but if the first few contributors go on too long, later contributors will not get to speak at all.

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (15 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: We have 11 and a half minutes left for three people. That is the order of the House, not me, so I ask everybody who is left to try to be as brief as they can be to allow everybody to get some say. I could possibly eat into the time allowed for the Minister, but I am trying to give him ten minutes at the end to address everybody's concerns. I do not want to delay any more talking about it...

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (15 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: Senators O'Sullivan and Higgins have indicated that they would like to share time.

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (15 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: If they use up all of their time then Senator Humphreys will not get any time.

Seanad: Annual National Transition Statement on Climate Action and Low Carbon Development: Statements (15 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: In line with an order of the House, I must ask the Minister to conclude, as the Minister, Deputy Zappone, has arrived to take the next business. If Deputy Creed continues, he will be reducing the amount of time that will be available to the Minister, Deputy Zappone.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: I thank the Minister of State for honouring the commitment he made to us the last time he was here that he would come back regularly to update us on progress in implementing his own report and the recommendations made in the Oireachtas joint committee's report. The Chairman and Senator Rose Conway-Walsh touched on quite a number of the points I might have made. I have questions about how...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: If a car is untaxed and the driver is uninsured, they will not be caught.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: When is some of that stuff going to happen? There was an ANPR system but it did not work. When will an ANPR system that does work become operational, whereby a Garda car can be on a motorway or a city centre street and can detect plates, as it should be able to do all the time, whether it is on the garda’s jacket or the dashboard of the car? When will that come into operation?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: But the database behind it was not working.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: When will that be working?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: What is the difference? Do privately owned vehicles exclude commercial, rental and-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: That relates to the fleet vehicles?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: I did touch on road safety. Garda traffic numbers are obviously not in the Minister of State's Department, but the working group is obviously cross-departmental. The Garda traffic corps numbers are down. That is acknowledged. When are we going to see more enforcement? We had the Minister, Deputy Ross, in the Seanad yesterday alluding to road safety. The statistics for road safety are...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: They are, but insurance payouts are based on claims and accidents. We can argue about the fraud aspect of it. Some people have one view of fraud and others have a more benign view of the level of fraud or do not believe it is as bad as others believe it to be. Ultimately, under the current insurance model, insurance companies pay out based on claims. If there are more claims, it is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: There is always going to be a need for it. It is a legal obligation to have insurance. However, the less the insurance companies have to pay out, the less they have to charge the customers.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: Okay. The very first meeting we had with the Minister of State gave us all a bit of a laugh. The Minister of State said that we need to manage expectations. He has alluded to that again today. My insurance is coming up in March and everyone else's will come up at some time during the year. I know the Minister of State might not be able to say it, but what are people supposed to expect...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: People who did not change their cars or jobs and became a year older along with their cars saw 35% to 40% increases in their premiums for no reason other than that is the market and that is it. The insurance companies will say that they are paying out more, there is Solvency II, they priced too little in the first place - all the things we heard over many days of hearings. Is the Minister...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: I have a couple of final points. In terms of co-operation from all of the various players, is the Minister of State finding it more difficult to get engagement or traction with any particular parts of the system? I think he managed to meet all the chief executives of the various insurance companies. In terms of the legal and medical professions and so on, has everyone been co-operative?...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: How did the legal profession, which is sometimes a bit hostile to criticism, perhaps equally as much as the insurance industry-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Report on Cost of Motor Insurance: Minister of State at the Department of Finance (16 Feb 2017)

Gerry Horkan: In terms of the wider insurance industry, representations were made by both the Licensed Vintners Association and Vintners Federation Ireland, which represent Dublin pubs and rural pubs. Will the Minister of State commit to meeting them? They wanted their issues to be aired here. They have seen huge increases in premiums and massive increases in payouts from insurance companies and they...