Patrick O'Donovan (Limerick County, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 3:

To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:“recognises that:

— the Minister for Finance is responsible for the development of the legal framework governing financial regulation and that neither he, nor the Central Bank of Ireland, can interfere in the provision or pricing of insurance products;

— insurers use risk factors in determining the provision and pricing of motor insurance offered to individual customers, including but not limited to the age, claims history, the driving experience, the number of penalty points that the driver may have and the age and type of vehicle being insured, and that these risk factors are a commercial matter for insurers;

— the Minister for Finance is unable therefore to make it mandatory to provide insurance to those that may pose a higher risk in the view of insurers, but that the declined cases agreement exists for those motorists that have been refused insurance;

— the ability of Irish consumers to purchase insurance from insurers in other European Union, EU, member states depends on those insurers being members of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland which compensates victims of accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles;

— the Government, through the establishment of the cost of insurance working group, CIWG, in July 2016, has given a high priority to examining the factors contributing to the rising cost of motor insurance and addressing those within its control;

— in making any recommendations, account had to be taken of the need to ensure a financially stable insurance sector, that avoids failures of insurers through underpricing, as we have seen in the past, as well as the need to ensure that Ireland remains attractive for new entrants to the market;

— the CIWG and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, both concluded that there is no single policy or legislative "silver bullet" to immediately stem or reverse premium price rises, and that reforms of the sector would take time;

— in this context, in its report on the cost of motor insurance, the CIWG made 33 recommendations to tackle those factors that are influencing the increasing cost of motor insurance in the following areas:

— protecting the consumer;

— improving data availability;

— improving the personal injuries claims environment;

— reducing the costs in the claims process;

— reducing insurance fraud and uninsured driving; and

— promoting road safety and reducing collisions; and

— substantial progress has been made by the CIWG in the implementation of the recommendations to date, with more than half of the 71 recommended actions having been implemented to the end of 2017;

welcomes that the Central Statistics Office data for January indicates that private motor insurance premiums have reduced by 17 per cent from their peak in July, 2016;

commits the Government to:

— maintain the momentum of the work to date in order to ensure a more stable motor insurance market generally and to encourage the continuation of the current pattern of decreasing average premiums;

— ensure that each of the relevant departments responsible for the implementation of specific recommendations continue to give them priority, in order to meet the deadlines set out in the report’s associated action plan; and

— ensure that the implementation of recommendations contained in the CIWG’s most recent report on the cost of public and employer liability insurance is also prioritised, as many of these recommendations will have a positive influence on the factors related to the cost of motor insurance;

looks forward to the two further reports to be published by the Personal Injuries Commission this year, which will look at comparative systems and will benchmark Irish compensation awards levels with those in other countries; and

calls on the industry to continue to engage with the CIWG with regard to the implementation of recommendations addressed to it, including the need for them to be more pro-active in tackling fraud."

I welcome the opportunity to address the Dáil on the motion from the Rural Independent Group on motor insurance. The Government and my colleague, the Minister of State, Deputy D'Arcy, who is responsible for the sector, recognise that the issue of the cost and availability of motor insurance is important for large numbers of people in the country. This explains why the cost of the insurance working group was established in the first place, as it was felt there was a need to identify and examine the drivers of the cost of insurance and to recommend short-, medium- and longer-term measures to address the problem.

It is clear from the work of the working group and, indeed, the Oireachtas joint committee report on motor insurance that there is no single policy or legislative “silver bullet” to immediately stem or reverse premium increases. Instead what is required is a series of actions to tackle issues such as protecting the consumer, improving data availability, improving the personal injuries environment and so forth. The Government, while recognising that there is still much more to be done, believes that significant progress is being made. It is also concerned that the motion as presented shows a lack of understanding of the role of the Minister for Finance in the area of pricing and availability of cover.

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