Dr. Michael Gillen:

In answer to Deputy O'Rourke's question, what we would like members to ask the insurers when they come in next week is to agree to sign up to this type of black box concept. Like Mr. Fielding, I was involved in this area in the early 2000s. We asked them for the same data we will ask them for again, and they will argue that on competition grounds they cannot give it to members. The research we have conducted does not support the idea that super profits are being made in motor insurance. If there were, the insurers would not all be leaving the market; they would be joining the market. Members should therefore park that idea. It is easy to hit out at the insurers and claim super profits are being made. They are not making money on motor insurance at the moment. They have the data that will allow people to form concrete decisions as to how to address the issue but they are nervous to release them on competition grounds. The black box will work because it will be done anonymously. As Dr. Walker said, it works really well for the producer responsibility schemes, such as for WEEE. It is a very efficient and very effective method for getting the data out there. There are mountains of data that are not being mined.

By way of clarification for Senator Conway-Walsh, the numbers Mr. Fielding quoted from the Injuries Board show that when people engage with the board, it works. The amounts it has been awarding over the past ten years are more or less consistent. However, approximately 40% of all assessments made by the Injuries Board are rejected by claimants. Either they decide they can get more elsewhere or they are advised they can do so. That is where the problems begin and where the insurers will make the decision, based purely on risk metrics, that it is cheaper to settle, even though they think they could win, than to take the chance of going in and having an award for €80,000 or €400,000 made for the exact same injury. If members are to ask the insurers anything next week, they should ask them to sign up to this black box concept. All of a sudden a mountain of data will be made available for members to mine effectively, and it will form a very solid basis on which to base new legislative agreements. The Motor Insurance Advisory Board has largely morphed into what is now the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. As Mr. Fielding said, the bulk of the 67 recommendations were adopted, but what we never adopted was a metric whereby people could be compelled to engage with them and we never adopted a process whereby the data insurers had could be made available anonymously in a non-competitive way such that people could mine it effectively.