Tim Lombard (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and take this opportunity to compliment him on his work on this important project. The cost of motor insurance has been a blight on many people. As Senator Hopkins rightly stated, it is a tax on rural Ireland in many ways. If one lives in rural Ireland, one's ability to get anywhere depends on travelling by car. The unfortunate rise in motor insurance premiums in recent years has had an awful knock-on effect. I welcome the approach being taken by the Minister of State and the working group's report. This is the type of proactive step that we need to see from Government.

One of the issues raised has been that of the number of uninsured drivers. That is a major issue for us and for the State, as is the issue of how we can tackle the pay-out of nearly €60 million on claims with respect to uninsured drivers. There has been movement towards getting a process in place to deal with that issue. That process will be one of the key issues, as will dealing with the issue of uninsured drivers.

As much as we have seen an epidemic in the rise of premiums in the motor insurance industry, we have also seen insurance prices rise in other industries in recent months. I spoke to a person involved in the retail industry in Clonakilty in west Cork only last week and that person saw public liability costs for a shop increase from €8,500 up to €14,500 in one year. We are seeing that trend of rising insurance costs throughout the entire market.

Senator Hopkins rightly raised the issue of farmers and, in particular, contractors who have been hit with excessive increases in insurance costs. Regular farmers who are not contractors have also been hit with such increases. There is an epidemic in terms of the rise in insurance costs. It will be a big challenge for us to deal with it and the way we deal with it will be the key issue. We have to follow on from this report in that they will have to be a report on insurance costs being borne by the retail and agricultural industries. We must examine how those industries have been affected by the exorbitant insurance price increases in recent months. They are feeling the brunt of what motorists felt a few years ago. We must work with the organisations affected in retail and agricultural industries in terms of preparing a report along the lines of the working group's report that has been published in order to move forward to stem that major increase in insurance prices. Insurance costs will be a major issue in terms of their competitiveness and taking account of Brexit and other issues. This issue is creating an insecurity in the market and we need to deal with it. It will be a major challenge facing us in next few months. I hope the Minister of State can examine the retail and agricultural industries and that we can act to stem the major increase in insurance costs in those industries. If we can do that, hopefully, we can stabilise the insurance market in the country.

Senator Feighan hit the nail on the head when he spoke about insurance products being priced as loss leaders. They might have been priced as loss leaders but other industries are now picking up the tab for that and that will be a major issue. We have to turn the screw to see what we can do to ensure we can protect those industries.

I compliment the Minister of State on grasping the nettle on this issue. It has been a tough year but he has made a great deal of progress. It would be appropriate for him to make a progress report to the House on this work in a few months because we need to examine the entire industry to enable us to stem the unfortunate price increases we have seen in recent months.