I thank you, Chairman, and the other members of the committee for having invited me to attend this meeting. I have watched the committee's work on insurance matters with great interest. I congratulate you, Chairman, on bringing to the fore many pertinent issues that in the past were not addressed as adequately as all of us would have wished. Great credit is due to your committee for bringing forward many of the issues that are now being addressed. The committee has created a great awareness in people's minds of the need for radical change. I am glad to see that is happening through a range of measures.
I will deal with the insurance question from the perspective of health and safety in the workplace. Significant efforts are being made by everybody to improve health and safety, promote greater awareness of risks and prevent accidents in the workplace. However, one of the most significant issues that has been raised by me with employers, proprietors and the unions is that companies that perform well have not been rewarded in the past through reductions in their insurance premia. Even companies that perform well are literally being fleeced as a result of fraudulent, exaggerated and spurious claims. I welcome the legislation that was passed last week but, on an operational basis, there is a need for further initiatives on which we are involved in discussions. I wish to tell the committee something about them.
Following discussions with the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment, the insurance industry is now putting in place ways of linking compliance by employers on health and safety standards with reduced premia. The Health and Safety Authority is in discussion with the insurance industry to establish standards and protocols whereby companies that achieve the standards set by the HSA will automatically receive reductions in premia. Those discussions are ongoing and I expect to see progress being made in that respect. I have had discussions with the four semi-State agencies involved in health and safety: the motor and road safety sector, the water safety sector, the marine safety sector, and our own health and safety sector. I have suggested to them that it would make eminently good sense to have greater co-ordination between the four agencies in getting across the safety awareness message. Discussions are ongoing between my Department and the other Departments involved in order to bring this about.
We all applaud the "Pay attention" slogan that is used in the current road safety campaign. I would like that to be extended so that we could pool our resources and put across a much more effective "Think safety, pay attention" message.
The most heart-rending aspect of my job in the past 18 months is that fact that, almost every week, I receive accident investigation reports relating to people who have died in the workplace. The one thing that strikes me time and again is that particular accidents could have been averted had the people and companies involved been more aware of or thinking about safety. This applies, in particular, in the two black spot areas of agriculture and construction. There is no doubt that most of the accidents in those two sectors in the past 12 months could have been averted if people had been aware. The preventative message is the one which we must get across. I welcome the recommendations the committee has made in that respect.
I wish to comment on two points. There is a National Irish Safety Organisation award scheme which has a number of categories. The scheme has been in operation for 13 years and I would like to see it expanded and become much more prestigious. I make an annual award for safety innovation which is open to all companies and organisations, small and large. It is aimed at encouraging innovation in business. My Department is looking at ways and means to raise the prestige of the awards and make their presentation a much more important event in the safety calendar.
The HSA has issued extensive guidelines on compliance. The track records of companies in terms of good health and safety practices and preventative and awareness programmes should form the basis of a scheme of premia reductions. The insurance industry is proactive in bringing forward proposals. We are involved in ongoing discussions with the insurance companies in terms of bringing such reductions about. The HSA is involved in formal discussions with the insurance companies aimed at achieving a much more proactive approach to premia reductions.
There are two other areas of significance. As stated at the outset, fraud, exaggeration and spurious claims are, in my opinion, the biggest contributors to insurance costs. The new Bill addresses this issue in a major way. As the Insurance Federation stated, there is a need for a much better database on claims in order that they can be tracked in a much more effective and transparent way. We are involved in discussions with the insurance industry, employers, the Attorney General and the courts in terms of establishing how we can put in place a more effective transparent database that will take account of the data protection legislation, etc., so that we can "out" those involved in fraud. The committee's efforts in that regard have been very effective. The "Prime Time" programme that was shown some time ago was also effective. However, action in this area must be ongoing.
I am aware that members of the legal profession appeared before the committee. It is time this profession faced the fact that a small number of solicitors and lawyers have been involved in aiding and abetting insurance fraud and, in particular, spurious and exaggerated claims. The director general of the Law Society yesterday defended its members and stated that anybody who has evidence should produce it. I put it to the Law Society that it is time it outed some of the small number of those involved in the profession who are bringing it into disrepute. Until such time as this is done, I will not be satisfied that it is serious about stamping out the levels of fraud and exaggeration that are to be found.
When one considers some of the case studies that have come across my desk from small employers throughout the country in terms of the way in which they have been treated and the payments made, there is no question in their opinion that spurious, fraudulent and exaggerated claims were made against them. It must be noted that, largely on the steps of our courts, deals are made by solicitors and lawyers which should never be made. The legislation will go a long way towards dealing with that.
Until such time as we deal with the claims compensation culture that is endemic in this country, however, small and large companies will continue to be ripped off. That is my most important message this morning. We must change the culture. We are working hard with the Health and Safety Authority to do that and we welcome the initiatives the committee is taking to highlight this matter. I wish it luck in its efforts. We will continue to co-operate with it in highlighting those issues and bringing an end to the kind of regime that has existed for far too long in this country.
