Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank my colleague, Deputy Doherty, for bringing forward the Judicial Council (Amendment) Bill. The work he has done to tackle the artificially high premiums has been tremendous. If adopted this Bill will have a really positive impact on insurance customers across the State. I was disappointed to hear the responses from both Ministers of State. When I lived in America, people would use the phrase "mañana, mañana", which means tomorrow, or we will basically do nothing. The nine months mentioned by the Minister of State suggests that he is stalling again, kicking the can down the road. We accept that we need insurance for myriad reasons, and there are associated costs and we presume this cost will be fair. What is not acceptable is the artificially high premiums and the failure to pass on savings and damage awards to loyal customers.

On 24 April, the personal injuries guidelines came into effect. They reduce the cost of damages awarded by insurance companies. These guidelines reduce the cost of pay outs for personal injury claims by between 31% and 69%. In the month or so since these guidelines came into effect, the premiums paid by consumers remained high and less than a quarter of consumers have seen their premium reduce. It is worth reminding ourselves that the when the insurance companies were before the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure, Reform and Taoiseach in 2019, they committed to reducing premiums if damages to personal injuries were reduced. They have not done this. It was suggested that if damages were reduced by 50%, motor insurance and business insurance would fall by an average of 15% to 20%, respectively. This has not happened. The promise to reduce premiums has yet to come to pass. We cannot rely on insurance companies to pass these savings on to their customers without pressure. Had they wanted to, they would have done so already by reducing premiums. We must take steps to ensure that these savings are passed on to people. Rather than sit back and hope that insurance companies act in the interest of consumers as that has been the approach of successive Governments with little reward, Sinn Féin is introducing this Bill which would benefit motorists, homeowners and business owners. It will create the conditions where much fairer pricing can be provided to insurance customers who for too long have been overcharged for their premiums. Our nearest neighbours in Britain have similar regulations, with many of the same insurance companies operating in both jurisdictions. If we were interested, we could sort out this issue if we wanted to.

See this speech in context