Vol. 542 No. 4
66 Mr. Stanton asked the Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the procedures in place in her Department to assist people who feel they are being unfairly treated by insurance companies; the number of such requests her Department has received in the past 12 months; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [24745/01]
There is no formal record maintained of representations which claim unfair treatment by insurance companies, be they written or via the telephone or e-mail. However, in the past 12 months it is estimated that the insurance section in this Department handled the following number of queries: written, 200; telephone, 2,000; and e-mail, 40. The majority of representations relate to complaints regarding increases in personal insurance premiums, especially for motor insurance.
There is a customer complaints direct response service in operation which offers a quality and speedy service and redirects queries for information to relevant bodies or organisations. For example, some are referred to the Irish Insurance Federation or to the relevant insurance company, which might be the subject of the complaint. Under EU law, I am not in a position to intervene in either the pricing or underwriting of insurance.
