Paul Bradford (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State, Deputy Lynch, to the House and I also welcome this legislation. I would make two points that may be slightly irrelevant but in a sense they are connected to the debate on this legislation and to the previous debate given that the Minister of the State is taking the Bill. They relate to the question of the equality of what is being forced upon us or the measures we are bringing about as a result of a European directive. The Minister of State will probably concede that her political career took off in a major fashion, certainly in a public way, arising from a European directive on equality of social welfare treatment. It was a campaign which the Minister of State, who was then I presume a councillor, led in the Cork region, which was under way for a long time and eventually, from a social welfare perspective, women throughout the country benefited from a decision taken in Europe.

However, it is interesting we are having this debate immediately after the debate on the foggy area of health insurance and risk equalisation, and decisions apparently being forced upon us from outside this House. Decisions coming from Brussels are generally beneficial, as was the equal status in terms of social welfare treatment. If this legislation was to result in the cost of insurance dropping for every citizen in this country, we would welcome it with open arms, but we have to be a little more cynical and patient and ask what exactly will be its impact. The march of equality in this regard will result possibly in car insurance premiums being increased for every female driver in the country. That is a little ironic but I suspect there will not be any corresponding drop in the price of motor insurance for male drivers. That will have to be strongly monitored.

I agree with a good deal of what the previous speaker said, whether we are discussing the subject of car, house or health insurance. The response of the consumer during the past decade sadly has been to pay the higher rate and to concede that the battle has been lost. The response of every Government during the past ten or 15 years on the health insurance area has been to sanction increase after increase. The previous Health Insurance (Amendment) Bill, which I reluctantly had to support, will not help in that regard. Judgments from Europe are fine and generally they are helpful but we have a big job of work to do at home to ensure, whether we are discussing equality or any other measure, that the consumer gets the best possible deal.

The headlines we read about this legislation did not indicate, as sadly I noted, that male drivers will pay less but rather that female drivers will pay more. That might be equality but it is not the best form of it. We have said in the Seanad on many previous occasions that in regard to every item of legislation we pass, whether it be European or domestic legislation and whether it be on health insurance, car insurance, equality directives or other measures, we should ask ourselves what will be the impact of the legislation in terms of jobs. Will it result in the Irish economy being more competitive and creating more jobs. The jury is out in regard to this.

The Government must be much more proactive in trying to drive down costs. The income of every citizen of this country has been substantially reduced compared to their income three of four years ago. Every worker, be he or she in the private sector or the public sector, is receiving less and yet the service providers employing some of those workers are not charging less on the whole. I acknowledge that is a slightly sweeping statement. We need to engage in a war against costs. In the 1980s there was an active campaign to tackle inflation and it resulted, sometimes at painful costs excuse the pun, in reducing inflation from 20% to lower figures. We have to tackle costs. Perhaps it is the mentality of the Celtic tiger but we have not been challenging enough, be it of insurance companies, health providers or others, of the costs being imposed on the consumer. I will not say that this decision is being forced upon us but the European institutions have made a judicial decision and we must live with it. It will not benefit as far as I can gather male drivers, rather it will penalise female drivers. They will pay more. We have to look at the broader issue of how we can drive down the cost of insurance.

I welcome the legislation in the sense that it is a fait accompli. From an equality perspective, perhaps it is correct decision in this wonderful world we are trying to create of having everything equal where everybody will be alike and think, talk, walk, work alike - the nirvana of equality. However, in the practical world in which most of us live and from an economic perspective we must be more vigilant. As a Government and an Oireachtas, we must be more proactive to drive down the cost of living for the very hard-pressed consumer. I look forward to seeing how this legislation will work in practice. We need to monitor the figures and statistics because we have given too much of a carte blanche to all service providers, be they insurance or other providers, during the past decade and the consumer is paying too much for too many things.