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, we have engaged with the Minister of State, Deputy Eoghan Murphy, and we are trying to participate in what he is doing. We had a very good conversation with him and we are encouraged that, across a wide spectrum of interests, there seems to be a broad consensus among people on the need to get this repaired. We were particularly encouraged by the Minister of State's response around data sharing because that is key. I appreciate that the book of quantum is thorny because it deals with the separation of powers and what the courts can be compelled to do.
Even so, there seems to be a fairly tight consensus around that and it is a good thing. There are a couple of specific questions. One is how big the influence of the discount rate is? There are a couple of sets of data on that which show it is impactful. The State Claims Agency, which is also affected by the discount rate, reckons that the change from 3% to 1% could add about €100 million annually to its bill. That is the sort of scale involved. It might translate in terms of motor insurance premium to approximately 7% on a typical motor insurance premium. That is how big the difference is. In our case-----
No comments