Michael D'Arcy (Wexford, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

As stated, the Government is conscious of the need to satisfactorily conclude the full compensation to Setanta third-party claimants as soon as possible. Through its announcement on Tuesday, the Government has indicated its willingness to facilitate this issue. It is important to remember that no payment can be made in the absence of a settlement by a third-party claimant. In this regard, the current position is that the liquidator for Setanta Insurance has informed the Department that as of 31 December 2017 there were 1,577 active claims, of which 573 claimants have been paid compensation from the ICF, subject to the 65% limit. Subtracting 573 from 1,577 gives the total number of outstanding claims. The liquidator has also advised that preparatory work is under way in respect of 275 claims to the value of approximately €5.8 million with a view to the accountant to the High Court making an application before the end of March. This means that just over 700 claims will be settled, with the remainder unsettled.

The Minister for Finance and I hope that the announcement will encourage a more rapid settlement of claims as third-party claimants can now work on the basis that they will be compensated in full. Another benefit of the decision is that it should immediately take the pressure off policy holders, some of whom have been pursued for the shortfall by third-party claimants. It is a particularly unfair situation for people who correctly and legally got insurance with a correctly and legally regulated entity, met all aspects the law required and, through no fault of their own, have been pursued for an accident for which the insurance company should be paying.

I wish to briefly mention the payment schedule for third-party claimants that has been raised on several occasions by Members. The existing legislation provides that claims can only be paid every six months.It has been asked if anything can be done to speed up this process. The answer, unfortunately is "No", six months is in the current legislation and nothing can be done. This difficulty has, however, been recognised as under the amending legislation, which is currently being drafted, this period will be reduced to three months.

The Senator can be assured that we are doing everything we can to bring this matter to a conclusion. It is a very unsatisfactory situation that the insurance compensation fund, ICF, does not conclude in the same way as the Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland, MIBI. Hopefully the Insurance (Amendment) Bill 2015, which I believe is before the finance committee next week, will help to address any future issues such as those that arose in the Setanta Insurance situation. It is, unfortunately, a slower process than we would like. There is very little we can do about that without amending the legislation.