Joan Burton (Dublin West, Labour) | Oireachtas source

There are several factors which explain the rise in motor insurance premiums, one of which emanated from the European Union a number of years ago and involved the equalisation of charges for female and male drivers. As Deputy Michael McGrath will know, that equalisation process worked to the advantage of younger male drivers who tend, unfortunately, to feature more often in accident statistics. At the same time, a lot of women who had very safe, careful and claim-free driving histories ended up on the wrong side of the process. It could be argued that the equalisation process drove a general trend of price changes which contributed to the upward pressure on premiums.

The PIAB has been a significant force in settlements being reached which do not involve lengthy court cases. I am not sure if the statistics prove that the number of fraudulent claims has risen but there have certainly been a number of court cases where Facebook and other social media evidence was used to dismiss claims. In some cases, people had apparently suffered severe injuries but when their social media activity was shared with the court, some of them appeared to be extraordinarily fit and well and to have fully recovered from any injuries they may have sustained in accidents. In other instances it appears that accidents were pre-arranged. I am not sure whether such cases are indicative of an overall increase in fraudulent insurance claims and it is not clear whether Deputy Michael McGrath has evidence to back up his contention in that regard. It must be said, however, that the courts take such cases very seriously.

I have an open mind on the question of the re-establishment of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board. However, that mechanism was used quite a long time ago and the industry has changed considerably since.

There have been a lot more amalgamations and mergers and the industry is much more concentrated among a few players. There are also far fewer brokers than would have been the case at the time it was originally established and many people would have used brokers in shopping around for the best price. The difficulty nowadays is that a lot of best-price shopping is done online and, sometimes, the variations in the different online offers make it extremely difficult to work out the best price. While I do not have a particular problem with the Motor Insurance Advisory Board, it would be appropriate for the Dáil committee that covers this area to have a discussion on this issue with a view to scoping out the factors which lead to change and undertaking research into the impacts. The Deputy talked about younger drivers. The problem with them, from an insurance point of view, is that, unfortunately for themselves and the industry, they have a higher rate of accidents and, therefore, a higher risk. That is why they are bearing the brunt. The appropriate Dáil committee would be the venue to have this issue scoped and examined, with a view to bringing forward a modern mechanism for more up-to-date regulation which reflects the online nature of much of the industry nowadays, as opposed to what it was when the original board was established.

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