Barry Ward (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Other Members have raised the issue of the landmark decision of the High Court last week in the FBD insurance case. It is welcome that the High Court has clarified the position, but those four individual businesses should never have had to take the case in the first instance. In January, the UK Supreme Court made a similar ruling. I know that the High Court here waited to see what the outcome of that would be and allowed the parties to make submissions to it on the matter. The case in the UK was taken by the Financial Conduct Authority, a state agency. It was not left up to individual businesses to put their resources on the line to bring such a case before the High Court. Other Members have raised this issue and have welcomed the fact that FBD has accepted the decision of the court in terms of its liability. I note that it has not yet accepted what the quantum of that liability will be. We will see on another occasion an opportunity for that company to challenge how much it will pay to businesses. We in this House should not be surprised at insurance companies that charge astronomical fees and premiums for business interruption insurance and then turn around and say to those same companies, when their business is interrupted and they go to claim on foot of that policy, that they are not going to pay out. Those are exactly the characteristics we have come to expect of insurance companies in this country. We see this particularly with small businesses regarding occupiers' liability insurance, on which there is no good faith between insurance companies and the people they purport to ensure. They continue to ramp up premiums despite the fact that there is no basis for doing so in terms of the cost to them of doing business. We in these Houses continue to bend over backwards to facilitate these companies when there is no quid pro quo.

The question is this: what is the Central Bank doing about it? It is the authority of the State and the body that is supposed to protect businesses, acting as a regulator and a consumer advocate, and it seems to have completely failed in that role. It did not take the case, it did not issue guidelines and the same is true of myriad other areas under its remit. The time has come, I suggest, for there to be a debate in this House about what the Central Bank can do to serve the citizens rather than the companies of this State.