James Reilly (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I congratulate the Minister of State on the Bill and on all of the hard work he has done quietly and assiduously over the past year and before. He has brought it all together in the end in a way that makes an impact. I reiterate the need for expeditious implementation of the Bill and the meeting of the council and that these matters are taken in hand early on.

I welcome the Minister of State's comments on what I will call the fraud squad in the Garda. I understand that in essence this is what it is but it will be in every division, so local knowledge will apply and local action can be taken, sometimes in an informal way. Sometimes, when people realise gardaí are looking at them, they can have a change of heart very quickly.

I want to praise in particular the Alliance for Insurance Reform. Peter Boland and his group have done us a great service. I was very much struck on Committee Stage by the fact that, unlike so many other groups, not alone did it come in and explain the problems but it suggested a suite of solutions. In fairness, the Minister of State has taken many of them on board in one form or another, and that is democracy in action. It is about listening to those on the front line suffering the brunt of this in terms of insurance hikes.

There are many aspects to the issue, as the Minister of State pointed out, and the Bill attacks only some of them. A perjury Bill will come to the House, which the Government will support. As the Minister of State said, a loud message needs to leave the House to those who would defraud people by grossly exaggerating, making false claims, or setting up accidents for the purpose of making a claim that there will be consequences, because there have not been to date. People think that if they try it on today and are found out, they can try again next month. This will no longer pertain and this message is very important.

The CCTV provisions are also very important. They send a loud message to people that this will impact on them. I believe this was used as a ruse by certain people who waited until the last minute when a lot of the evidence was gone and then made their claim.

I thank the Minister of State for doing all he has done to bring this together. I also want to mention the great work done by the Garda and I support it. We want to be in a position to support it.

With regard to the Judiciary, this is not remotely a witch hunt but an effort to help it improve its performance and have, as do all groups, an element of continuing professional development that allows it to oversee what is happening and help those who might be a little out of line for a host of reasons, which can be done in a friendly and supportive fashion. It takes a long time to become a judge and we do not want to lose people from the Judiciary. We want to support them. However, we have to demand an even justice system for all of our citizens.