Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy and he will acknowledge that in the past, the Government has accepted legislation from him on the insurance issue and we will be willing to do so again and to work with him on this and give his proposal full consideration. As I did not hear what the insurers said at the committee, I do not want to comment directly on what I did not hear them say but if they said that they had already factored in the personal injury guidelines into their premiums, I would find that hard to believe. How would they have known what figures the Judicial Council had come up with?

I was not aware of the figures until I saw them, so I cannot imagine how they would have been aware of them either. My expectation is that now that the personal injury guidelines are in place, the provisions they have to make should be lower and, therefore, premiums should fall over the next couple of months or at least as people get their renewals. I have heard some anecdotal evidence of that happening but have not seen any proof of it as yet. As already stated, the message is clear from the Government. We brought about this reform to reduce the cost of insurance and make it more available, and we expect the insurance companies now to deliver. We are open to any proposals that will help us monitor them and hold them to account so that it happens.

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