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

I thank the Deputy for raising this question. As he knows, I chaired the ministerial committee on insurance reform. I acknowledge the work of the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, who has responsibility for the sector.

For far too long, the cost and availability of insurance has been a big problem for businesses, consumers and community and voluntary groups. We have made good progress on implementing the action plan. I have always said, however, that the success of the plan will not be measured by the number of completed actions but, rather, by whether the reforms implemented over the lifetime of the Government result in reduced premiums and increased availability of insurance. While we have seen some signs of improvement when it comes to availability, we have only seen premiums for motorists decrease to date. There is also likely to be a lag time between implementing these reforms and people seeing the benefits.

The Cabinet committee subgroup has worked very well in overseeing the action plan and 90% of the actions are now complete. I want the subgroup to continue its work next year. It will continue to be chaired at a high level by either the Taoiseach or Tánaiste. It will actively review developments in the sector, monitor price changes and engage with stakeholders.

Progress we have made to date includes the new personal injury guidelines, which are being used, and the establishment of new offices to promote competition and crack down on fraud. We strengthened the law on perjury legislation to reform the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, which has been passed and now awaits signature by the President. I understand we accepted the Deputy's amendment on the review as part of that and it was a welcome contribution. We also put proposals in place to amend the law on occupiers' liability, that is, the duty of care provision, to rebalance responsibility between those who run and own premises and those who may come into it. We anticipate having that done if not in the first quarter of next year, certainly in the first half of next year. Where savings have arisen from these reforms, we expect them to be passed on to policyholders. That is the message being conveyed to the industry by Ministers and I reiterate it today.

In terms of prices to date, despite the current trend in headline inflation at approximately 9%, the Central Statistics Office, CSO, indicates that motor insurance is 10% lower than a year ago and 43% lower than when it peaked in 2016. PIAB data also show a significant 44% reduction in award values for general damages and we now expect those reductions to be passed on to policyholders. We have, therefore, seen a significant reduction in motor insurance from its peak in 2016. We now want to see that when it comes to employer and public liability insurance over the course of the next year.

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