Willie Penrose (Longford-Westmeath, Labour)
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Question 427: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Innovation the steps he will take to regulate the practice whereby customers of a company or a business are being steered to preferred suppliers, who in fact are competitors of the businesses, which the consumer wishes to engage with; if his attention has been drawn to the fact that this practice is widespread in the insurance industry, whereby they insure a product or service and then decide on a supplier of that service and set a price which they are willing to pay and if he would consider this an appropriate practice; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [35083/10]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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Regulation of the insurance industry is a matter for my colleague the Minister for Finance, and is an area in which I have no direct role. I understand that the practice to which the deputy refers relates to arrangements involving insurance companies actively recommending certain approved repairers to their policyholders. The arrangement between the insurance companies and the approved repairers appears to be one where the approved repairers are selected on the basis that they meet various qualitative standards with the approved repairer in return being guaranteed a minimum flow of work. Service Level Agreements are generally entered into by both parties. The Competition Authority, which is the independent statutory body responsible for enforcing competition law in the State, has advised my Department that such arrangements do not appear to breach competition law.