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24 Oct 2025
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24 Oct 2025
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Public meeting in Portlaoise on insurance crisis
A business campaign to tackle an insurance 'pantomime' which is costing companies hundreds of millions is set to be brought to the doorstep of Laois TD and justice minister Charlie Flanagan.
The Irish SME Association (ISME) is calling all businesses in Laois and Offaly to join them in to push for insurance reform.
The group is appealing for as big and as broad a sectoral representation as possible to attend the meeting in Portlaoise. It says it wants to ensure that our Justice Minister understands the severity of this problem for businesses in the area.
Speaking at the event will be Neil McDonnell, ISME CEO, Peter Boland of the Alliance for Insurance Reform and Paul McMahon a solicitor from McMahon Legal.
ISME CEO Neil McDonnell spoke in advance of the meeting about the insurance crisis.
"Business owners are entirely fed up with the pantomime fight between lawyers and insurers over the cost of insurance when both extract many hundreds of millions of euro annually from our sector.
"Business owners seeking affordable insurance do not seek to delimit the constitutional rights of others. They simply want our Government, our courts and our lawyers to recognise that they too have constitutional rights: to property, and to earn a living. These rights are being trampled daily by a greedy, toxic compensation culture that is facilitated in the first instance by the legal profession, and in the second by opaque or non-existent data on insurance costs.
"At the moment, if you own or operate a premises and you go before a court — most especially where children are concerned - you’ve lost the case before it’s heard, irrespective of the merits of your case," he said.
ISME want local businesses who may be affected to join us on the day and share their stories. Anyone who wants to go public with their experience should contact ISME in advance.
The meeting takes place at 7.30 am on Thursday, May 16 in Kavanagh’s Bar, Main Street, Portlaoise.
Sign up to attend the meeting here.
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