Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

Dr. Swanick comes from County Roscommon and practises in Belmullet. He is a very successful young man who will make be a major addition to this House.

I also ask the Leader to arrange for the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Bruton, to come to this House to review the Personal Injuries Assessment Board which was established more than ten years ago by the then Minister, Mary Harney. The board processed more than 31,576 claims last year and made 12,420 awards totalling €281 million.

The cost of car insurance is spiralling out of control. In many cases, premiums have increased by 25%. The reason for this is the quick settlement of claims, some of which are allegedly fraudulent, to avoid having to go before the courts to fight them. I recently came across a case involving an accident that occurred last Christmas and involved only a scratch to a car but in respect of which six months later a claim was made in respect of whiplash. How a person could experience whiplash six months after an accident is beyond me. Companies such as Liberty Insurance and others are settling such claims rather than fighting them in court but the people who are paying for these claims are the people paying for insurance. We must fight fraud. If I do not get results in this particular regard then, using parliamentary privilege, I will act on behalf of the public to name and shame companies in this House, as I did in relation to price increases. In one particular case, because of an uncontested claim, a young man now has to pay €5,000 per annum to insure his car which he needs to get him to a job he has been offered in County Kildare.

My request is a reasonable one. The Leader is very responsive to requests and I ask that he ensure the Minister, Deputy Bruton, comes to this House to discuss the issue of insurance and how we can rid ourselves of fraud and fraudulent claims.