Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 8 September 2016

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion

11:00 am

Mr. Conor Faughnan:

Yes, but my concentration was on Great Britain. That was approximately 15 years ago, after which a number of things happened here. The Motor Insurance Advisory Board, chaired by Dorothea Dowling, was put in place. It produced what was then a seminal piece of work that still is immensely useful and that gave rise to the Injuries Board. We also then had the growth in the Irish economy, which drew in a great deal of competition, which meant we then had a highly competitive landscape for a long time. We had a ten-year period during which every year, year on year, the average Irish motor insurance premium fell. On a constant currency basis, it probably has gone a bit silly recently, but at the start of 2014 we got to a stage at which an Irish motor insurance premium was approximately 40% cheaper than its equivalent in Great Britain.

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