Section 1 simply refers to the fact that the Act may be cited as the Insurance Act and that it is to be taken together with the earlier Insurance Acts and construed as one code and that it will come into operation on the day appointed by the Minister. It really ties into the long title of the Bill that it is an Act to amend and extend the Insurance Acts 1909 to 1985.
I am very concerned at the fact that, although there are a considerable number of Government amendments to the Bill — which shows that there has been serious consideration presumably of representations made and of issues that have arisen and a willingness to come forward with amendments — we still have what I consider to be a very unsatisfactory situation in the apporoach to our insurance law. It is undesirable that our insurance law should be covered partly by Acts of the Oireachtas, including this Bill which is proposed to be part of that code, and partly by ministerial regulations under the European Communities Act, 1972. The thrust of those European Communities regulations is in many ways more far-reaching for our insurance law than the Acts of the Oireachtas.
We have a sort of two-speed approach and it is something about which the Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities were very critical. Indeed, when the joint committee considered the two regulations under the European Communities Act which are referred to in the next section, that is, the regulations of 1976 and the regulations of 1984, they recommended that when there was an Insurance Bill before the Oireachtas the opportunity should be taken to incorporate those statutory instruments into an Act of the Oireachtas. The reason I have risen at the commencement of the debate on this Bill to raise the matter and even at this somewhat late stage to ask the Minister to consider bringing in further amendments to incorporate those regulations is that in a further recent report of the Joint Committee on the Secondary Legislation of the European Communities the same issue arose and the joint committee referred expressly to this Bill.
I would like to draw the attention of the Minister to that report. It is Report No. 3 on Council Directives relating to credit, suretyship and legal expenses insurance. It was adopted by the joint committee recently on foot of a report from a subcommittee which I chair. Therefore, I have to confess that I had a hand in the drafting of the report. Nonetheless the views are those of the full joint committee when the report was adopted.
I will refer the Minister to paragraph 5 of that report which makes specific reference to this Bill and the view expressed is an important one which I hope the Minister will take on board during this Committee Stage. The joint committee stated as follows:
The Department of Industry and Commerce has indicated that it is the intention to implement both Directives by a statutory instrument made under the European Communities Act, 1972. While the Joint Committee accepts that this course of action is open to the Minister it does not consider it satisfactory that the main statutory provisions regulating the conduct of the insurance business should be found in subordinate legislation which has never been considered by the Houses of the Oireachtas. This position has come about in particular by the implementation of EEC Directives by the European Communities (Non-Life Insurance) Regulations, 1976 and the European Communities (Life Assurance) Regulations, 1984. A previous Joint Committee recommended that these Regulations be replaced by an Act of the Oireachtas when opportunity offered but this opportunity has not been availed of in the Insurance Bill, 1987 currently before the Seanad. The Joint Committee is informed that at one time it was hoped that this Bill would be a consolidating measure but that the resources available within the Department were inadequate for the task.
That was a view expressed to the joint committee but we are now considering the Insurance Bill, 1987, on Committee Stage and important Government amendments are tabled. In my view, and I think this is the view of the joint committee, the most important Government proposal would be to consolidate our insurance law in this Bill. I will refer to other matters that could also be dealt with. It is important to consolidate the law because we have at the moment two different ways in which we are regulating our insurance law, one by Acts of the Oireachtas and the other by regulations under the European Communities Act where the Minister does have very wide powers to amend or vary an Act of the Oireachtas. This is particularly important because of the implications of European Community law, both the directives that are coming out and also, as the Minister will be well aware, the case law of the Court of Justice on freedom to provide services.
I will mention later on this Committee Stage some other problems I think are important that are not dealt with in this Bill as it stands at present but I would hope could be the subject of amendment also. Before coming to that I would like to hear the Minister comment on whether it would be possible to bring in further amendments to have one code in this Insurance Bill. If it is not possible to do it in this Bill — as I would hope it will be while it is still at a relatively early stage of its parliamentary scrutiny having been introduced in the Seanad — I hope the Minister can give an undertaking that it is intended, within a very short time and before any more European Communities ministerial regulations are adopted in the insurance field, that there will be a consolidating code in order that we will have an Act of the Oireachtas or Acts of the Oireachtas to be read together which govern the law in this very important area. I would welcome the Minister's response.