Derek McDowell (Labour)

These are the most important amendments that we have discussed so far. The Minister indicated willingness to consider the idea when he dealt with the matter in the Dáil. Simplicity is the aim behind them. If someone wants to claim a policy, there should be one point of contact – one phone number or website – where they can get information. At present, that does not apply.

The Minister of State, Deputy Gallagher, painted an interesting picture of huge numbers of papers gathering dust for decades and did not give the impression that they were collated in an accessible and user-friendly fashion. It would be desirable that the obligation would rest with the NTMA and the companies and that there would be a central database where people could get the information they require. At present, a person would have to contact each insurance company. Some of those companies might not be based in Ireland and only deal through branches here. Some of them, such as the one mentioned earlier, may not be as active in Ireland now as they were 20 or 30 years ago and perhaps their customer service is not as good as it was then.