Seanad debates
Wednesday, 12 March 2003
Motor Insurance: Motion.
Car insurance is a particularly special product for one reason, that is, it is compulsory. Everybody who wants to hold a driving licence is compelled by law to go to privately run insurance companies, which are under very little compulsion by law. That may make me sound like some sort of an interventionist in the free market, which I have always have been – although Senator O'Toole may not be – but when people do not have any choices, the Government has the option to police this area properly and ensure it does not exploit the those who are compelled to be part of that process. Car insurance is an example of where people have been exploited by one of the great cartels. It is different from the banks, which benefit as cartels from the inertia of their customers and from the fact that none of us like to switch around because of laziness, fear, culture, cost and other complicated reasons. However, it is not the same in the case of car insurance.
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