Joe O'Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State and I congratulate him. I commend the fact that he has really grasped this issue. He is making it a big priority in his Ministry and I wish him well with that. Despite competing commitments at home, I stayed on to contribute to this debate because I wanted to say this to the Minister of State and also because this issue is of huge importance to the people in the constituency in which I live, which does not have a rail service, just an effective bus route on the N3. In most of County Cavan and County Monaghan, people have no alternative but to use their cars to go to work, school and on social outings.The cost of motor insurance is more than a casual matter in that kind of environment. I have a point that I might discuss privately with the Minister of State. There has been a huge hike in public liability insurance for business people. I came across a case of a small retailer where the cost increased from €1,800 to €3,300. This is happening across the board. That is not what we are here for. We are here to discuss motor insurance. I commend the Minister of State's work.

Of course, it is important to eliminate fraud. The Minister of State has identified fraud as costing €250 million per year, which is very significant. As Senator Craughwell said, the core of a database does exist but a database of claims is critically important. The insurance companies concede fraudulent small claims rather than confront them because of the cost of doing so. It is cumulative. The Minister of State will have to talk to the companies and they will have to stress test and challenge many claims for a while until the culture changes. I know many cases of this. I am aware of one scenario where a person puts in what can only be described as a spurious claim for tissue injury or minor injuries and that claim is conceded because it costs €7,000 or €8,000 to do so whereas it would cost far more to challenge it. A figure of €10,000 settles it and those instances of €10,000 being paid accumulate. Confrontation and stress testing are needed here. I commend this course to the Minister of State to see what he can do in this respect.

It has been said earlier that settling on the court steps years after an accumulation of costs is not a satisfactory modus operandiand the Minister of State needs to deal with this. The company either concedes early on or fights it to the very end. This must happen. If companies are serious about their contention that fraudulent claims are an issue, they must be consistent and stay with this.

The issue of uninsured drivers is significant. It is a chicken and egg situation. I can tell the Minister about many youngsters in my area who, sadly, are pushed into being uninsured drivers, a situation I do not condone, because of the gigantic cost of insured driving and the necessity of driving. It is not an acceptable position but it is almost like the children in Fagin's group in Oliver Twistwho steal. They do not have another option in some instances but it is not acceptable. We must look at the way we deal with uninsured drivers. I take the Minister of State's point that technology should be fit to produce a consistent database.

The Central Bank needs to introduce more control. I wonder whether insurance companies hold an awful lot of trophy offices in very upmarket parts of cities and towns, whether these companies are wasting money in other spheres and whether there is a lot of nonsense here. The Central Bank has a role to play here. I would like the Minister of State to challenge the insurance companies about where our money is going. It is not just about fraudulent claims and uninsured drivers.

The question of legal fees obviously arises. I know it has been said that they are not the factor they were thought to be but they must be a consideration and they need constant monitoring. I commend what the Minister of State is doing. He needs to keep battling in the areas of claims, the immediate concession of claims, uninsured drivers and the cost of claims. It is a well-travelled area but it is important that this work is done.

I would welcome it if the Minister of State agreed to come to this House possibly three times a year to update us because this issue matters. People want to know what we are doing about this issue.