Insurance industry - Harney puts premium on competition

FROM the home to the factory floor, the car, the school playground or the countryside, Irish insurance premiums remain unconscionably high and long-suffering consumers are paying through the nose for cover.

So there will be intense public interest in Tánaiste Mary Harney’s visit to London in the hope of luring cheaper insurance firms to Ireland.

If her bid to shake up this country’s insurance sector succeeds, it will be applauded by customers who for years have forked out for excessively high premiums.