Rose Conway Walsh (Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome this Bill. In the previous finance committee we spoke about the assessment of where we had got with the motor insurance sector. The CSO has said that premiums are down by 23%. I will be writing to the Minister of State about the information I have collated from a number of surveys I have done which do not reflect that. I will write to him under separate cover and get the Minister of State's comments on it because it is worrying.

I welcome this Bill; we have talked about it for long enough. Transparency was the key identified by the finance committee when we examined this issue in detail over the past two years. However, the legislative approach taken is weak and hands too much scope to the Central Bank to interpret the will of the Oireachtas.

We have had eight progress reports to date on changes made to the insurance sector. When I and others quizzed the Minister about the lack of progress on many elements of the cost of insurance working group’s plan, we were told that we need to examine the database as it was the main element and not get distracted by other parts that are way behind schedule or have been dropped. It is here now, and it could be a lot better.

I have doubts about whether the database the Minister envisages will ever see the light of day given that this legislation is basically an enabling piece of law to allow the Central Bank go ahead and do what it wants. That is not good enough. When the idea of the database was first mooted most people would probably have imagined it to be a database they, as consumers, could consult to check out details of insurers. Instead, it is only an industry database held by the Central Bank. It is a very limited form of transparency.

On Second Stage in the Dáil, my party raised the issue of whether the Central Bank is the right body to hold and manage this database. Other suggestions were made such as the Personal Injuries Assessment Board or the CSO. The Minister is proceeding with the Central Bank as the body responsible but he is failing to draw up sufficiently tight instructions for the Central Bank to operate it.

Technically speaking, there is nothing in this Bill to guarantee that any motor insurer would be included. I accept that is the intent but much leeway is given to the Central Bank and there is no legal onus to include motor insurers. Public liability insurers are kicked down the road, so to speak, and again there is no legal obligation to have them included.

I have concerns also that the reporting rules put into the Bill will allow insurers muddy the waters by declaring all sorts of costs as expenses, meaning that they will look as if they are less profitable than they are. As legislators, we should not simply tell the Central Bank to go and make regulations. We are the ones accountable and we should influence primary law. In this case, we should be using that influence to tighten up the transparency standards.

The other parts of the Bill that concern me are the changes to the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004. These are very serious changes. We cannot simply go along with every change suggested because it is sold as tackling fraud. We are running the danger of going through a period of reform in the insurance industry, and the only aspect actually reformed is that it becomes far more difficult to make a legitimate claim. The idea of legislation allowing the courts draw an inference is pushing the boundaries of constitutionality and we need to tread very carefully.

I support the Bill but we will consider a number of Committee Stage amendments that may enhance it. I thank the Minister of State for taking on board one of our party’s amendments on Report Stage in the Dáil. We can work together but there are serious issues within the Bill that need to be addressed. It would be our intention to enhance the Bill in every way we can but also to have it passed by the House as speedily as possible.We share the concerns of the Minister of State on the high cost of motor insurance and the greater transparency that is needed all around to allow more competition into the market and to unblock some of the barriers that are preventing people from obtaining motor insurance and insurance in general at a reasonable cost.