Results 21,121-21,140 of 35,894 for speaker:Pearse Doherty

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: During that period the underwriting loss increased.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Is it the norm that insurance companies offset underwriting loss with investment income?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I spoke earlier about smokescreens. There has been much focus on the expensive necks of the Irish people and fraud but very little focus on the fact that the insurance companies are seeing a dramatic drop in investment income, which is one of the reasons why premiums are going up because the income to offset the underwriting loss no longer exists. Is this analysis correct?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: The investment income in 2012 would have been about 20% of the premiums that would have come in.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Does Mr. Mulligan agree with the assessment of the former Governor of the Central Bank when he wrote to the Minister for Finance in a confidential letter that was released to me under freedom of information? In the letter, he said that a number of non-life insurance companies took a very optimistic view of the future economic outlook, built up unsustainable overheads and followed an...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: He refers to a number of non-life insurance companies. He does not suggest that it applied to all of them.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: We know this from statistics but when Professor Honohan referred to this cohort of non-life insurance companies, he said that several Irish general insurance companies had eroded their capital base. Can we accept that this was a factual point in 2015? He was talking about previous years. Part of the letter is redacted, which I presume is composed of figures that I am not allowed to see....

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: That is the model. They charged on that basis because they were of the view that they would have this type of investment income into the future. Quantitative easing came along and basically said that they could not get the 4% return on their Government bonds that they used to get and would get negative rates. This means that insurance companies have lost that portion of their income but...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I accept that. The problem is that the underwriting or investment losses are not only attributable to the motor insurance industry. In respect of the €100 million that was lost in those three years or the smaller amount of income generated between 2000 and 2014, a small portion of that came from the motor insurance industry. Is it not the case that because motor insurance is...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: I thank Mr. Mulligan for those answers, which have been very helpful. I thank the delegation from the Injuries Board for its presentation. A number of Deputies and Senators have gone through the figures but if we look at the end figure of 33,000 that has come to the board, we can see that only 7,200 claims have been assessed by the board and agreed by participants so we have a huge gap in...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Does the Injuries Board have access to the insurance data that were provided to compile the books of quantum for 2013 and 2014, the secret information for which we have been screaming for quite a while, or were they given directly to the private consultants?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: They would, however, contain information on, for example, the number of claims settled out of court out of the total number not agreed by the Injuries Board.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: It was the payouts-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: -----and that was it. Before we move on to the book of quantum, the Society of Actuaries in Ireland makes the point that there has been a 42% increase in the number of claims being processed by the Injuries Board. Is that not a reason premiums are rising? We know that the levels of awards are not causing the rise and that the level of solicitor representation has not really increased...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: In fairness, that is the way I read it, and that is the important part. If there are that many awards-----

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: The better.

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Let us consider the book of quantum. When the Injuries Board assesses a claim, does it rely on a book of quantum which is based on claims that were paid out prior to the compilation of the book, which was 12 years ago? What does the Injuries Board do? Does it just add an additional inflation charge?

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Returning to former Governor Honohan's letter, he made suggestions to the Government in July 2015. He said that the introduction of judicial guidelines in this regard would usefully complement the policy framework in Ireland as it has proved effective abroad. This concerns the Injuries Board and the book of quantum. Does the Injuries Board support that idea, that there should be judicial...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: Very good. Regarding claims that are settled, regardless of how we can fix the process or try to enhance the process, there always will be and always should be the right of an individual or indeed an insurance company to pursue a matter through the courts. Is it the board's view that in cases of claims which come before it and are either rejected by the insurance company or by the...

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach: Rising Cost of Motor Insurance: Discussion (Resumed) (14 Sep 2016)

Pearse Doherty: What about when the book of quantum states that for a certain category of whiplash, for example, the award is €15,000 and somebody appeals that to the Judiciary and gets €45,000? I think in one of the documents I got through a freedom of information request I saw correspondence between the insurance sector and the Department, which were concerned about some newly appointed...