Mr. Aidan Connaughton:

Since April - between April and the end of October - we have reduced motor rates by 5.1% or just under 5.2%. It is 5.16%, in fact. We are seeing the same green shoots everybody is seeing from the personal injuries assessment and the judicial guidelines. Our concern is very much around the rejection rate. The rejection rate is roughly 70%, which is phenomenally high and will lead to significant uncertainty. At a practical level, insurers would typically have approximately 50% of their claims in litigation. The litigated claims can take four to five years to get washed through the system, if you like. Although we are seeing reductions of up to 40% with regard to the awards, the current Government reforms do not address any of the legal costs associated with claims.

Two things are happening there. One is that we have a rejection rate that is very high, which will lead to uncertainty, more claims moving into the litigation process, and those claims taking longer to get sorted, which will delay any benefits that policyholders might hope to reap from the judicial guidelines change. We are also seeing the impact in the courts now, through the District Court and Circuit Court, where we have significant backlogs of litigated claims. To get a hearing now in the District Court could be as far away as 18 months at this time.

While we are seeing the green shoots and while we have started on the journey to reducing premiums, there is a level of uncertainty going forward. We perhaps need a little bit more certainty as an industry in terms of the judicial guidelines being stuck to. There are even a couple of, or even five or six, High Court challenges being taken against the judicial guidelines as they stand today. There is, therefore, a little bit of uncertainty but we have started on the road to reducing premiums.