Let us be clear on this. Every one of the operating companies concerned in this agreement was opposed to the passage of the Insurance Bill, 1936. They wanted to be let carry on. They still want to be let carry on. The Bill was carried by this House in the teeth of the opposition of every insurance company in this country. The insurance companies had two alternatives. One was to obstruct the Oireachtas and to refuse to operate in any way, or to tell the Minister that he would have to amalgamate them compulsorily because they did not believe in the policy that the State was sponsoring. The other line was, having made their representations to Dáil Eireann and having had their representations overruled by An Dáil, to take the Bill and do their best to give effect to it. They did consult the Minister and the officers in the Minister's Department. They sat down and drafted the scheme which the Minister now recommends to Dáil Eireann. The critics of the companies cannot have it both ways. The Oireachtas would not let the companies alone, but insisted on the companies drafting a scheme. Now the companies have drafted a scheme. They would much prefer if they had been allowed to carry on on their own. The Dáil having forced amalgamation on the companies, there is no use in anyone getting up and saying that the insurance companies are making a good thing out of it. They never did want an Insurance Bill. If the Dáil is prepared to repeal all the legislation relating to insurance passed during the last twelve months, the insurance companies will be delighted. It is ridiculous for their critics to want both ends of the stick, having forced an Insurance Bill on the companies, and to suggest that this scheme contains some hidden privilege for the insurance companies.
This scheme is the logical consequence of the Insurance Act that was passed. The House passed that in the full knowledge that money would have to be found to make up the actuarial deficiency which existed at the moment. The position of the insurance companies is that if you leave them alone the actuarial deficiency will disappear. The companies will become not only actually solvent but actuarially solvent. If you want to interfere now, you do so in the full knowledge that you are dealing with a situation where there is an actuarial deficiency, which must be made up if you want to secure actuarial solvency.
I take this occasion to underline the fact, that if you interfered with the strongest English companies in the insurance business, at the same stage of their careers, as you are interfering with the Irish companies, you would find that the actuarial deficiency was far greater in the great English companies than exists in the Irish companies to-day. The great English companies were not interfered with in the early stages, and they became some of the wealthiest corporations in the world. The Irish companies, if left alone, would become as wealthy as the circumstances of this country would permit. It is the choice of this House —not of the Irish companies—that Oireachtas Eireann should interfere with their business, and at this stage, take upon itself willingly, the liability for actuarial deficiency, which the insurance companies say would have disappeared if their business was allowed to go on in the normal way. There is no use saying now, because Oireachtas Eireann wanted to insist on doing so, that Oireachtas Eireann has something to complain of. If Oireachtas Eireann wants to repeal the Insurance Act, and to let the insurance companies go on as they were, they consent. If not, it is Oireachtas Eireann's own choosing if it wants to take on the actuarial responsibility at this stage.
