asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce the extent to which insurance companies have complied with the conditions laid down by him in 1973 for increases in motor car insurance rates.

The conditions, as modified in September, 1973, attaching to the increase of 10 per cent in basic premiums which I approved in March of that year were accepted by all the insurance companies. They were, in fact, superseded by later conditions recommended by the Motor Premiums Advisory Committee. These later conditions referred to schemes for reduction of loadings.

The conditions as so amended have been complied with by all companies in so far as they relate to loadings on premiums or to the giving of a breakdown of premium to new customers. As far as they relate to giving a breakdown of premiums on renewal of policy to existing customers, the condition has also been fulfilled by companies doing the greater part of motor insurance business, but some companies report that they have found great practical difficulty in doing this. I am keeping up the pressure on these latter companies.

Can the Parliamentary Secretary tell the House what the difficulties are?

The situation varies, depending on the other companies. Two of the other companies say they will be in a position to comply with the request when a new computer system which they are in the process of developing is operative and they hope this will be in the not-too-distant future. Other companies say that for reasons of economics and practicality they have not implemented the request. It appears to be their present intention not to do so in the immediate future. One company with its head office in the United Kingdom has advised that the implementation of the condition would involve the writing and running of a separate computer programme by their head office and this would be prohibitively expensive. However, I can assure the Deputy that the Department propose to continue in negotations with all these companies with a view to having the recommendations of the National Prices Commission complied with at the earliest possible date in full.