Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 196: To ask the Minister for Finance if he has compared the cost of various forms of insurance cover here with that applicable in other EU member states; the extent to which the charges here have fluctuated in comparison to other jurisdictions in the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5557/10]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 197: To ask the Minister for Finance the basis on which insurance premiums have increased in the past two years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5558/10]

Bernard Durkan (Kildare North, Fine Gael)
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Question 198: To ask the Minister for Finance the extent to which he has studied insurance premium reductions or increases over the past five years to date; the areas or categories subject to most frequent fluctuations; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5559/10]

Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 196 to 198, inclusive, together.

The Financial Regulator does not maintain statistics on insurance premium costs, so I am not in a position to comment specifically upon the level of such increases in the past 2 years nor on the fluctuation in the past five years. However, as mentioned in previous PQs (45220/22 of 2009) the Financial Regulator has provided some background as to why insurance prices have increased in recent times. It has advised me that while the non-life insurance market performed well up to the end of 2006, market sources indicate that much non-life business was written at a loss in 2007. This trend continued in 2008, but the companies were still willing to write business at a loss in order to maintain their market share. They were able to do this as a result of the reserves they had built up during profitable years. However, the situation could not go on indefinitely and indications are that firms have taken action on pricing to underpin their financial positions.

The Financial Regulator has informed me that no comparative exercise has been done on the cost of various forms of insurance cover here with that applicable in other EU member states. It should be noted that such an exercise might be difficult to conduct on a 'like for like' product basis because of the varying nature of the insurance market in other EU countries.