Government must listen to ISME on insurance

IN less than a week, ISME has issued two statements that ought to be a serious wake-up call to the Government and to the insurance sector.

Head of Research at the employer body Jim Curran said the surveys showing confidence nose-diving and the cost of insurance going through the roof were closely intertwined.

“What we are looking at now is up to 22% of Irish businesses in the small to medium category operating without proper insurance cover while 40% say they will be employing less in a year's time,” he said.“If that is not a wake up call to the government I don’t know what is”, said Mr Curran who said ISME was extremely disturbed at the escalating costs of insurance cover and the slump in business confidence which it said last week was the worst take on the economy since the 1993 currency crisis when interest rates hit 60% in some instances and the cost of mortgages went through the roof.