Mr. Mike Curtin:

I will take that question. In terms of the personal injuries guidelines, as Deputy said we have heard a lot over the past couple of days about the position of individual insurers and different stakeholders. We welcome the guidelines wholeheartedly. Since they were adopted on 24 April, insurers have stated that there have been material decreases in premiums in conjunction with the guidelines. The NCID report from Central Bank suggested that between quarter 4 of 2017 and the end of 2020 there was a 16% decrease in the cost of motor premiums.

CSO figures for the period suggest that there was a significant decrease of 8% over 2021 so, thankfully, they are having a material impact on consumers and it is good to see. The one concern from an industry perspective is that there is a high level of claimant rejections of the awards being made directly from insurers and PIAB. One thing we advocate is for them to be swiftly settled and adjudicated on. The benchmark for all these awards will be set by the courts in the land and the sooner these cases are heard and if we get more certainty regarding pricing in the future, the better from an insurer perspective.