Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 19 May 2021

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

Developments in the Insurance Industry: Discussion

Mr. Declan O'Rourke:

Again, I am not familiar with the detail from the UK. I do know individual prices are changed all the time by customer level and at all different levels, so that would be a very difficult thing to do. There are other ways we can do it. We can look at the margin of the insurance companies and the particular lines. If we look at the motor insurance business in Ireland, it has never been a particularly profitable business anyway and I do not see it becoming particularly profitable in the next year. Most companies are looking to make a margin of five points on it. I think it can be monitored quite easily over the next period through the national claims information database and through returns from the insurance companies as to the margin they are making on that business.