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

I thank Deputy Ó Murchú for raising this issue, which we have discussed previously. I appreciate and acknowledge his interest in this area. He is concerned to help various groups that are affected by limited access to public liability insurance. The Government recognises the concerns felt by many groups regarding the cost and availability of insurance and has prioritised insurance reform. As the Deputy is aware, we have an action plan for insurance reform and 80% of the actions under that plan have been done at governmental level. Some of the other actions will require implementation through the courts and are related to legislation we have recently passed. The judicial guidelines have been challenged and test cases have gone to court. I understand that one case was dealt with in recent weeks which upheld the guidelines. Some of the insurance companies wanted to see the outcome of those test cases. That will now give a level of certainty. Settlements were being held back while the outcome of those cases was awaited. A lot of people were not happy with the reduced rewards under the guidelines. Their solicitors advised them that they would have secured awards that were double in size last year and that the guidelines could reduce the possible payout by 40%. Many people have held off accepting awards until the guidelines were tested in court. We are making good progress on that and I am confident the Judiciary will stand by its own guidelines.

The other issue is duty of care legislation, which was cleared by the Government recently. I expect that legislation to go through the Oireachtas this year. That will be very important, as will the reform of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, to give the board a role in mediation. Until now, the board made a recommendation and told claimants they could take it or leave it. The Government's view is that if PIAB is given a conciliation role, it could negotiate an agreement between the two sides. We hope the relevant legislation can also be completed this year.

Finally, some new players are entering the market and these new insurance companies are beginning to help in some of the areas that had difficulties.

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