Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

As I indicated earlier, I am meeting with the chief executives of each of the major insurance companies in Ireland over the next fortnight and I want to give an assurance to the Deputy that I will specifically put that item on the agenda for those insurance companies that deal with sports clubs, and not with just these clubs but with other voluntary sector organisations, together with groups and people in the community sector who also have difficulty in getting insurance. I will be asking those who are involved in the industry at that meeting to re-examine the premiums being charged for the coming year in view of the fact that many of the sports clubs and voluntary sector organisations were closed for most of last year and are currently under restrictions, which will continue for some time. There will be much reduced activity, risk of injury and of claims as a result.

I will also be asking those companies that are not directly involved in this area, which for one reason or another either pulled back from it or were never involved in the sports insurance area, to have a look at the industry now, especially since the judicial guidelines have been published and enacted in law.

Two key issues were mentioned regarding the provision of insurance in Ireland in all of my engagements with the insurance companies last autumn. One was the level of awards and the associated legal costs. The second was the lack of certainty where they could not plan or make reasonable financial projections as to the cost of claims over a reasonable period of time. The Judicial Council guidelines have achieved a very substantial reduction in personal injury claims which are, on average, in the region of 50%. In some cases it will be much higher than 50% but in other cases it will obviously be lower. There are very substantial reductions in the awards planned under the new judicial guidelines in a number of the main areas of claims we are talking about, small injuries that cure within a short period of time and which leave no lasting effect on the individual, compared with the book of quantum that PIAB uses at the moment.

In addition, the issue of certainty is very much back on the table. From our point of view, up to now we were in a weak position because nobody in Ireland could reasonably predict what would come out of a court case. Now that the judges have collectively made this decision and have issued very strict guidelines, to ensure that the judges themselves follow the guidelines they have agreed to, these will apply bar in very exceptional circumstances where a case must be stated. This level of certainly will help us to bring other insurance companies back into the business of providing cover in this sector.

One further point to be made is that there are other elements involved because incidents happen in sports fields, clubs and sporting activities where people can suffer significant injuries. We hope that all recover within a very short period of time. We were not able to predict how much some of the awards would cost up until now. That is now happening and I have met some sports clubs over the past year that have given me examples of some very serious awards against their club and their insurance company which resulted in them not being able to get insurance cover on a subsequent occasion. I am confident in saying that those days are behind us and insurance will be available for all of these groups now. We want to increase competition because we cannot mandate precisely the price ourselves. It is not within our gift and is a commercial decision but I believe that we will get a positive response from the chief executive of these companies when we meet over the next two weeks.

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