Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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124. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of persons by month who have applied to the declined insurance agreement administered by a company (details supplied) for the past six years; the number of applications that were rejected in the same timeframe; the average premium per year for successful applicants to the declined insurance agreement, in tabular form; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33759/17]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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At the outset, the Deputy should note that as Minister for Finance, I am not responsible for the operation of the Declined Cases Agreement and therefore I do not have direct access to the data that is being requested. 

However, in order to be as helpful as I can, my officials contacted Insurance Ireland about your information request.  In response they have provided me with statistics on the number of cases they have dealt with which are set out in the following table.

In relation to these cases Insurance Ireland have informed me that they secured a quotation for the applicants in question through the Agreement and that they therefore consider all of these applications to have been successful.  With regard to information on the average premium per successful application, I am informed that this is a matter for individual insurers and that this information is therefore not recorded by Insurance Ireland.

It should be noted that the Cost of Insurance Working Group examined the issue of the Declined Cases Agreement, on foot of receiving a number of submissions and queries from individuals about its operation.  In light of feedback from members of the public, the Working Group recommended that the Declined Cases Agreement process should be made more transparent. In this regard, Insurance Ireland have submitted the first of the required annual reports on the operation of the Agreement to my Department within the past couple of weeks and it is currently under consideration.