IT’S NOT EVERY day that a video of a politician talking about insurance at an Oireachtas committee goes viral.

You’ve likely seen the clip of Sinn Féin’s finance spokesperson Pearse Doherty grilling insurance company bosses – if not, you can watch it here. Its virality has prompted more people to look at their insurance premiums and ask: Why do they keep going up, and up, and up?

Many are feeling the pinch, with several summer festivals under threat due to the large sums of money now required to cover public liability insurance.

This is at a time when the insurance industry is recording profits of more than 1,300% and is blaming fraud for the increase, something which Doherty’s contribution at the committee disputed.

But what exactly is going on?

That’s what we examine in this week’s podcast as Sinéad O’Carroll is joined in studio by TheJournal.ie reporter Orla Dwyer to discuss her FactCheck looking at the rate of fraudulent claims in Ireland, Peter Boland of the Alliance for Insurance Reform who talks us through the complications in how a claim is processed, and Pearse Doherty, who speaks more about his questioning of insurance chiefs while also examining the finer points of insurance industry in Ireland – and what can be done to fix it.

Find a full list of where the podcast is available here.

The Explainer / SoundCloud

This episode was put together by presenter Sinéad O’Carroll, assistant producer and technical operator Nicky Ryan, executive producer Christine Bohan, and producer Aoife Barry. Design by Palash Somani.

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