Mark Dearey (Green Party)

I wish to outline a couple of the critical contexts in which this is happening. I will also address the substantial question of the authority of the Financial Regulator to do what it has done. I will also consider the best way of giving Quinn Insurance a fighting chance of emerging intact from the situation if faces now that this action has been taken.

The primary context to which I refer is the employment one. If this action leads to job losses, it will reverberate around County Cavan and as far as my home county of Louth. I was a member of the Border Regional Authority until a few weeks ago. As one of the key characteristics of the Border region is its weak urban fabric, it has little opportunity to build up large employment bases. The employment provided by Quinn Insurance in Cavan town is one of the few shining examples in the area. It is of regional and national significance that this business should continue in the Border region, in which there are few exemplars of wealth generation that spin out into the rest of the regional economy. We need to move warily, bearing in mind at all times the enormous implications any hastiness might have for families and the business sector in the region.

My party fully recognises that the Financial Regulator has the authority to supervise the insurance industry. We welcome that absolutely. In the light of the complete failure of lax regulation in the banking sector which is about to cost this and future generations dearly, we need to continue to uphold the authority of the Financial Regulator in these matters.

I understand Senator Wilson's stout defence of the Quinn family and the business it conducts. It is clear that the discovery of the guarantees has had a serious impact on Quinn Insurance's balance sheet which has moved into a deficit of over €200 million having had a surplus of a similar amount. It is important for the Quinn Group to be given every opportunity to demonstrate how it can manage its debts, present a plan that will lead it out of this situation and create an opportunity for Quinn Insurance get back on its feet, having paid off its debts. It is incumbent on us to ensure the group will have such an opportunity. Senator Wilson is right to say the reputational damage done will not heal in a day or a week. However, it can be healed and it is critical that this happens.

Quinn Insurance is one of just two companies to offer insurance cover to the music promotion industry, in which I work. Approximately eight or nine years ago my insurance premium was approximately four times more than it is now. Insurance was 200% higher than it is now, not 50%, as Senator O'Toole suggested. That reduction has resulted in part from the arrival of additional players in the sector. It is imperative that there continues to be competition in the insurance sector. If there is not, we will return to the bad old days when people were under-insured and got into all sorts of problems when claims were made against them. I accept that regulatory failure has fed into the situation in which the country finds itself. The effects of the situation at Anglo Irish Bank have weakened the Quinn Group's reputation and its fabric. I appreciate that Quinn Insurance has created employment and brought competition to the insurance market. However, we need to continue to uphold the authority of the Financial Regulator. We should also give the group as much space as possible to deal with these problems and emerge intact.