Michelle Mulherin (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I concur with Senator Horkan. He and a number of others attended the presentation by the Alliance for Insurance Reform. One could only come away from it being quite shocked that, notwithstanding the Government's working group on the cost of insurance, shopkeepers, publicans and people running businesses are in an awful predicament. No longer is insurance a safety net to which one resorts for help in unforeseen circumstances. The cost of insurance and public liability is a threat to the operation of businesses. A pub in my county had to shut down because its premium for public liability insurance increased from €5,000 to €55,000 in three years. We were told of a case in Galway where a public liability insurance premium increased from €17,000 to €107,000 in three years. How could any business hope to pay such an increase?

There seems to be a culture whereby people feel justified in making money through insurance fraud and they stage accidents to that end. We saw footage which was very incriminating but I believe no prosecutions have been made in regard to it. The Civil Liability (Amendment) Act deals with exaggerated and misleading claims but it seems there have been very few, if any, prosecutions under it. Nobody has been held to account. Businesses that are employing people are closing.

We are being told that late night trading and the chance to go dancing late at night will become a thing of the past. We must act. These businesses pay tax and employ people. It is our responsibility to act. The establishment of the Garda insurance fraud unit must be at the top of the list of priorities. The unit will be funded by the insurance industry and must be set up immediately. The Minister of State, Deputy Michael D'Arcy, must come before the House to set out what actions have been taken on foot of the report of the working group. We must get to grips with this issue because society is being crippled by the costs of insurance premiums and claims. It is not beyond us to get to grips with the issue but we are not doing so at the moment.