Shane Ross (Independent)

The Leader is correct. It was mentioned in the first paragraph. A high level implementation group usually means it is full of rather pompous people who will not reach any conclusions. The Minister of State then went on to refer to two of my pet hates, the two words in any speech that drive me mad, namely, IBEC and the ICTU. They were used as a sort of defence for delay and committees. I became somewhat suspicious of the defensive nature of the Minister of State's response.

Nevertheless, there is a genuine desire to tackle this problem, although I doubt that the Government or anybody else knows how to do what they want to do, which is reduce the price of premia. Although there have been many suggestions, eloquent speeches, reports, committees and comments on insurance companies, there is no indication that premia will be reduced. That is the nub of the problem. I suspect that Senator Ryan and others were right. The problem is the insurance companies. It was indicative of somebody's thinking that there was an offensive paragraph in the Government amendment which was, effectively, an apologia for the insurance companies. I am glad that emerged.

We should confront the insurance companies and ask them what they are doing and who is running them. The insurance companies are the biggest cartel. They are a bigger and more menacing cartel in some ways than the banks. They have captive victims. One cannot avoid going to an insurance company and that is the problem. Members are unanimous about wanting to tackle this problem and reduce premia, but the vested interests appear to be delaying the implementation of the necessary measures. Those vested interests appear to be more powerful than the Members of both Houses of the Oireachtas.

There were some good suggestions in the debate. Senator McCarthy's suggestion, that people should get some type of points rebate if they have a clean driving record, whether they are young or old, was excellent. We should look at the insurance companies in a more combative way. As Senator Ryan correctly said, like all professionals they confuse us with jargon. They seem to think that because they talk a language we do not understand, with its embedded values and God knows what else, they are practising some sort of superior science and are, therefore, justified in what they are doing. They are blinding us with that science and we are allowing them to do so when they could easily charge lower premia if they got their houses in order.