Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 11 July 2019

Select Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach

Consumer Insurance Contracts Bill 2017: Committee Stage

Photo of Pearse DohertyPearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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Amendment No. 42 relates to the deferring of payments of a claim. This limits the retention to 5% of the claim settlement offer, where the claim settlement offer is below €20,000, and to no more than 10% of the claim settlement offer, where the claim settlement offer is €20,000 or above.

I welcome this amendment because some of the activity of holding back claims is scandalous. However, it does not go far enough. There are serious questions as to why insurance companies can hold back 10% for larger claims, which can be a significant amount. This can seriously impact on the consumer. They nearly have to go to a contractor to say the other 10% is coming along. There are questions as to why the insurance companies should even be allowed to hold back that level of a payment. It is a matter which I will look at on Report Stage.

Will the Minister of State inform the committee as to what are the current levels of retention?