Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 6 October 2016

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

Rising Costs of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed)

10:00 am

Dr. Cyril Roux:

It is always a mixed bag. We are just at the cusp of changing our data. I will explain. Until the end of last year, we were operating under Solvency I, which means that the data we received was based on Solvency I reporting. Solvency I reporting was not unified. We had our forms under which we collected information, and that was under-developed compared to what can be found in other markets. Certainly, we collected less data than the financial provider I know best, by a significant margin. That was the data we were operating under until the end of last year but as of this year, we are operating under Solvency II, and in that regard we have a changed world in terms of the quantity of data we are asking for, and the built-in integrity of data will be much higher. We have moved from asking templates that I can print and give to the members to a different world where the data we collect is not something I can put on a sheet of paper. It gets into a database and I can query it. I am no longer able to say, "Fill in this template". That is no longer the world in which we operate. That data will be coming in the course of this year, and especially at the start of next year because that will be the first full year. It will not just be for us. I stress that the important part of it will be made public as a report on solvency and financial condition. Members will see, in the spring of next year, each firm disclosing high quality data and high quality forms that will inform public opinion, views and public debate. They will see a sea change in that data.

There will be teething problems in the first year of operation of a new system, so I do not think the data we will get next year will be of the utmost quality. It will take two or three years so that in terms of all these teething problems, people will not make mistakes. We are moving to a different world.

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