Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)

On this beautiful morning, I would also like to speak about the issue raised by Senator Fitzpatrick. I believe others might speak about it as well. An article in today's edition of The Irish Times let us know that the Minister for Justice, Home Affairs and Migration is planning to bring the personal injuries guidelines increase to Cabinet in a week and a half. This is probably the 15th time I have stood up here to talk about this because it is too serious a matter not to talk about. Coincidentally, I received a press release in my inbox from the Alliance for Insurance Reform. The alliance received 775 responses. It showed that premiums continued to rise and one in five organisations have one underwriter willing to provide insurance. I am one of the people in that situation. I had to run around the country six or seven years ago trying to bring businesses together, form a group and get a group scheme. That is the only way my business has insurance. A total of 90% of respondents said they had not benefited from the Government's action plan on insurance reform.

We have the duty of care and the personal injuries guidelines. They have only been in effect for the past three years and now the Judiciary is telling us that the personal injuries guidelines should go up by 16.7%. This should not be the case. This will affect community festivals, businesses and sports clubs. It will affect everybody. We have not seen what these guidelines have done yet. It takes four to five years to get through the system with a claim in the first place. If someone goes through the Injuries Resolution Board, he or she will get a €23,000 payout and it will cost him or her €1,000 in legal fees. If someone goes through litigation, it will cost him or her €23,000 in legal fees and he or she will still get a €23,000 payout. We have put so much work in. We have a Cabinet committee on insurance reform. We have done so much to try to help businesses, sports clubs and other organisations and now, only three years after the personal injuries guidelines came in, we are planning to increase them by 16.7%. This cannot happen.

I know my colleagues in Fianna Fáil have written to the Minister. We have spoken about it. We brought forward a motion on insurance reform two weeks ago. We just cannot see this happen. There is a quote from the Alliance for Insurance Reform that I really do not like seeing. It says "government risks being seen as completely out of touch if it approves an increase in personal injuries awards that will see insurance premiums skyrocket". Does the Government not know that people just cannot afford it? Businesses cannot afford it. It will be passed on. That is what insurers do.It will probably be rounded up to 20%. We cannot let this happen. I would really appreciate another debate with the Minister in here to discuss this. It is very urgent and we do not want to see this happen in the next week and a half.