Kieran O'Donnell (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

The point I am making is that, for the incurred claims, the element that is provided for expected claims is a judgment call. One could make the case that an insurance company is being very prudent in that it errs on the side of caution and it ups the amount it provides. The trend is that the number of claims overall has gone down by 20% and court awards have gone down dramatically - by 40% in the period - yet we are not seeing reductions. We had the insurance companies before us recently and I went through their figures. They are looking for an average net return on premiums of 5% or 6% but many of the companies are earning substantially more than that. The insurance companies will blame the legal costs and the claims, the legal profession will blame the insurance companies and it is the consumer who is losing out. While we will probably not agree, I believe that making the argument purely on the average does not stand up to scrutiny. When does Mr. Hassett expect to see substantial reductions in motor insurance premiums?