Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I request that the Leader of the House, Senator Buttimer, arrange an early discussion on the old question of the cost of insurance, particularly in light of the fact the Personal Injuries Assessment Board has reported that the average claim for whiplash in Ireland is €20,000, five times the average in the United Kingdom for similar complaints. There have been 4,500 settlements in the first six months of this year. It is an enormous cost to the State and to people who have cars insured because it mainly has to do with car crashes as opposed to fire, theft or other insurance issues.

I praise the President of the Circuit Court, Mr. Justice Raymond Donal Groarke, who has been president since June 2012 and served in the Circuit Court from 1995 or thereabouts. I am sure Senator McDowell would agree that he is an outstanding judge because in recent times he has adjudicated on cases of complete and utter fraud in the courts and we all owe him a great debt of gratitude. He is doing more than the Government is to solve this problem. The judicial appointments issue is important so that we get the right type of judge and I am pleased to say that Mr. Justice Groarke is a wonderful judge and it is good to commend somebody of his calibre, courage, conviction and commitment to the job in this House.

Also, An Garda Síochána should have a dedicated fraud squad. When people go into court with cases which are totally falsified they should suffer repercussions and the cases should be followed up. I know of one case in Roscommon town where a young man drove into a person from Poland and very little damage was done but within six months the person who was driving the other car and got a scratch on the side of the car decided to put in another claim for whiplash. That young man is now paying a premium of €5,000 a year for what I regard as a falsified claim because I followed up on it and I found the same Polish gentleman out fishing in Lough Ree catching a major pike.

Insurance companies are too quick to settle these cases. They should have investigators out there looking at each case, although some insurance companies are better than others. It is a wake up call so I ask the Leader to ask the Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy D'Arcy, to come to the House to discuss the work he is doing on this.