Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the opportunity to speak on the Family Leave and Miscellaneous Provisions Bill 2021. I will be focusing on sections 30 and 31, which pertain to the new personal injuries guidelines.

Lé ró-fhada, tá na comhlachtaí aráchais ag glacadh lámh ar chustaiméirí maidir le costais aráchais. Tá a fhios againn uilig sin. Tá seo ag tarlú in ainneoin go bhfuil costais éilimh ag titim. Tá costais éilimh ag titim anois mar gheall ar an reachtaíocht seo agus mar gheall ar na treorlínte úra seo. Beidh na comhlachtaí aráchais ag sábháil airgead ar chostais. Beidh Sinn Féin ag moladh go ndéanfaimid cinnte sa reachtaíocht seo go mbeidh laghdú ar chostais aráchais do na custaiméirí ar fud an Stáit de bharr an laghdú costais do chomhlachtaí aráchais.

The personal injuries guidelines were adopted by the Judicial Council on 6 March. They will replace the book of quantum that has, until now, been used by the courts and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, to determine the level of awards for personal injuries. They are a function of the Judicial Council Act 2019, whose passage through the Houses Sinn Féin supported and facilitated. We did so for a clear reason, that being, to provide regularity in the level of personal injury awards and, in so doing, reduce the cost of insurance for motorists, homeowners and businesses.

Sections 30 and 31 of the Bill provide for the early coming into operation of these guidelines. Under the sections, the courts will use the new guidelines for all proceedings coming before them from the commencement of section 99 of the Judicial Council Act except in cases where an assessment has already been made by the PIAB and then rejected. They also provide that the PIAB will use the new guidelines when assessing claims. That is fair and equitable.

Since these guidelines were adopted and published, the insurance industry has already begun to backtrack on its commitments to reduce prices for consumers. That is not acceptable. The industry cannot be allowed to move the goalposts. It has tried to do so on spurious grounds using bogus arguments, such as the claim that it will take time for the new guidelines to work through the system. That is nonsense. At the finance committee in July 2019, the CEO of Allianz Insurance was crystal clear. He stated: "when we price insurance, and we are pricing insurance for the next 12 months, we have to set out our premium on the basis of what we expect to happen in terms of the number of claims over that 12-month period." There we have it. The basis is not claims in the previous 12 months, but what will happen in the next 12 months. At the finance committee three months later, the CEO of Zurich Insurance told us that we should expect prices to fall as a result of new guidelines on personal injury awards. He stated that, if there was a 50% drop in awards for soft tissue personal injuries, "It would be quite reasonable that if that were to happen and insurers had reduced their prices, with all things being equal and somewhere in the region of 10% to 15%, the committee should ask us a lot of questions." He told us that we should expect prices to fall by at least 20% in respect of public liability. That was straight from the horse's mouth.

These guidelines provide for reductions beyond that. They go much further than just soft tissue injuries. We cannot let the insurance industry off the hook. The new guidelines will significantly reduce the cost of claims for insurance companies. These savings must be passed on to their customers in the form of lower prices - no ifs, buts or excuses. The Dáil must hold them to account. That is why I have tabled an amendment to the Bill for Committee Stage. It will require the insurance industry to provide information to the Central Bank for each of the next four years detailing how the new guidelines have reduced the cost of claims, what the cost of claims would have been had the new guidelines not come into effect, and how the insurers have passed these savings on to their consumers, with an annual report laid before the Houses of the Oireachtas. Only then would we be able to see not only how these guidelines have reduced the cost of claims, but how and if the insurance industry has passed the savings on to its customers.

Sinn Féin will continue to hold the insurance industry to account and will be asking the Dáil to support our amendment on Committee Stage.

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