Mr. Brian Hanley:

I fully agree that competition is the key. In contrast, in motor, where we saw some entrants in recent years, that put downward pressure on premiums for a period. Unfortunately, that has not been the case for about 24 months. It reduced premiums by about 20% or 25%, no doubt influenced by the additional entrants. It takes a long time to shift a reputation. It will take even longer if we do not work at it. Ireland had a reputation around the size of awards, the volume of claims and so on. Insurers were well aware of it and they crunched the numbers. That has changed now, dramatically, with a 40% reduction in the volume of claims over a sustained period. It was not a Covid drop, but from before and since, it is down by almost 40%. That alone, if nothing else happened, should warrant premium reductions.

It did not stop there; we also have the personal injury guidelines. Members were very relieved they did not see the increase in awards because awards are still far higher here than in other countries. If it is going to take some time to change the reputation, then we need to work at it constantly and it needs to be a priority in how it is addressed. That is why the alliance recommends and suggests a meaningful published strategy with KPIs. There are some very good initiatives in the action plan but if there are no additional resources added, then what is really going to change? All we can base the prognosis on is what has happened in the past. We have not seen any new underwriters in the liability space for at least a decade. That is why we are pushing it so heavily. I think it worthwhile to ask the CCPC to undertake a further review, post the reforms, of the liability market to see if there are any other impediments to the underwriters joining and to see what can be done.