Linda Nelson Murray (Fine Gael)

The increase in the personal injury guidelines, as recommended by the Judicial Council, of 16.7% is excessive. As I was preparing for this over the past couple of days, I reflected on the first time I spoke about horrendous insurance difficulties facing businesses, which was on 24 January 2019. There I was, sitting in a ball pool in my soft-play centre, full of hope and enthusiasm that we could do all we could when it came to insurance reform to save businesses like mine. An article in the Irish Examiner reads: "Linda Murray has vowed to go down fighting after failing to get insurance renewed on her own play centre in County Meath, where premiums have spiralled from €2,500 to €16,500 in just five years". It was my insurance that had gone from €2,500 to €16,500. The article continues: "With two claims pending, she has been refused cover renewal and may now have to close [her business] in Navan, with the loss of 12 jobs". Thankfully, that did not happen, but it almost did. The only reason my business is still open is that like-minded businesses in the leisure sector came together to form a group called Play, Activity and Leisure Ireland, PALI.In that group, we got a group insurance scheme and so, in a sense, we all support each other. Getting that scheme set up and continuing it has required a huge amount of work both from when I was involved and by the current team in PALI. Today, those people are in an insurance meeting trying to get the next scheme going. They should not have to do it but without it, we would not all be open; it is as simple as that.

Today's motion recognises the work the Government has done. The 2020 action plan for insurance reform delivered significant progress and only two weeks ago, stakeholders had a chance to give input into another examination of insurance reform. I believe there were approximately 60 submissions, which is fantastic. Real-life examples are important when discussing an issue such as insurance. Today, as Members have probably seen, Chill Insurance has released a car insurance index showing that people in counties like Longford pay on average €1,042 for car insurance. Those in my county of Meath pay an average of €785 for car insurance. I have heard that a publican in Cork recently had his premium increase from €5,500 to €6,300, an increase of approximately 14.5%. A publican in Donegal had a premium increase from €6,000 to €7,500, or 25%. In just one year, a restaurant in the south east saw its insurance premium surge by 23% despite having no claims in recent years. There were no incidents and no payouts. There was no justification, so why the hike? Over the past two years, a Cork restaurant's insurance premium has jumped by 30% without a single claim on its record. This is indefensible and exposes the broken nature of our insurance market.

The circular economy is going to become increasingly important as our carbon emissions come under increased scrutiny in the years ahead. Recycle IT decided to compare what it was paying in Ireland with what its counterpart in the UK was paying. Guess what? Granted, Recycle IT's turnover is three times higher than the UK organisation, but its premium is 17 times higher, with one paying €51,000 and the other paying £2,100. A tool-lending library here in Ireland, a great initiative, has managed to secure a policy that represents 75% of its budget, which for many start-ups could mean imminent failure before they even begin.

I will focus on a few points, and the Minister of State knows what I am going to talk about first - the legislation surrounding the personal injury guidelines. He and I have spoken about this and it is something I cannot give up on. I feel that he understands what I am saying. Personal injuries sustained by visitors to businesses and public spaces between 2019 and 2023 have seen a 40% reduction in claim volumes since we introduced these guidelines. In addition, claims in cafés, hotels and restaurants more than halved while shops and stores saw a 44% decrease and sports and athletic areas experienced a 38% reduction. Now, the Minister for justice is considering increasing awards by 16.7% before we have even seen the impact of the first reduction. The Minister for justice has received a recommendation to increase these awards, and this has come from the Judicial Council. Would we ask the Judicial Council to come up with sentences for murder or theft? If there is a separation of powers there, why is there not a separation of powers here?

I want to read an excerpt from the draft guidelines presented to the Minister for justice.

In carrying out its review, the Committee had regard to [two matters in particular] ... The first is the fact that in the three years since the adoption of the original Guidelines, significant global and national inflation has occurred. The second is the jurisprudence of the Superior Courts that emerged in the period regarding the proper approach to the assessment of damages in multiple injuries cases.

The Committee did not find it possible to carry out any meaningful analysis of the quantum of court awards given under the Guidelines that might inform this review. This is because the inevitable delay between the commencement of proceedings to which the then new Guidelines applied and their trial has meant few award decisions have been reached - certainly not enough to be statistically significant.

If this is the case, why are we not waiting for meaningful data? The report also states that the board decided to modify the guidelines in order to reflect the HIPC rate applicable at the time of its consideration of the draft amendments to the guidelines. I am not an expert on inflation, but I believe it is approximately 1.9%.

On this, I ask the Minister of State to do the following: please, change the review of the personal injury guidelines to seven years, let us wait for the data from cases through the court system and settlements out of court, and let us analyse it properly. Do not let the Judicial Council decide on awards. Section 90 requires looking at awards outside the State. The Judicial Council's 2020 report comparison with England no longer holds as there are much lower values for soft tissue injury there. For example, when England reviewed its tariff on soft tissue injury, it undertook a process calling for evidence submission. It got experts and real-life evidence. We need a separate independent commission made up of the Injuries Resolution Board, stakeholders and policyholders, and - real information. If it is not too late, I call on the Minister of State to negotiate those increases. Let us not let down all the those in businesses, groups and sports clubs around the country, many of whom are watching this debate right now. The Minister of State must try to fix this for everyone's sake.

The NCID liability report found in 2023 that the average legal costs were less than €1,000 for cases finalised at the Injuries Resolution Board but over €23,000 once they entered litigation while awards for claimants were the same in either channel at €23,000. The NCID report also shows that cases that go to litigation take almost six years to settle whereas it takes only two years through the Injuries Resolution Board. Therefore, it is disappointing to note that the volume of cases going through litigation has actually increased by 17% between 2019 and 2023. The Injuries Resolution Board is the fastest and most cost-effective method for resolving claims. The Minister of State has been very much involved in this. It is fantastic. The Government needs to make every effort to ensure claims are progressed and settled through this channel.

Therefore, I ask for a full review of the legislation underpinning the Injuries Resolution Board to be carried out to examine how it can be further strengthened. The timeframes for settling cases through the Injuries Resolution Board should be reduced, with increased resources and staff provided where necessary. There needs to be a major public awareness campaign to make people aware that the Injuries Resolution Board is the fastest and most effective avenue to resolve their claims. The board needs access to information on all settlements to allow it to carry out accurate reporting on adherence to the personal injury guidelines and, in particular, to closely monitor and compare the difference in award amounts settled through litigation. We need to explore the feasibility of moving the insurance link framework to the Injuries Resolution Board.

Legal fees can often exceed the injuries awards paid out, as reflected constantly in newspaper articles. Consideration should be given to whether fee scales can be implemented, as has happened in other jurisdictions. Why would we not ensure legal fees in personal injuries are more transparent so we could know exactly where the fees came from? Can we just restrict aggressive advertising for high claim awards in social media? TikTok, Instagram and Facebook have lots of such ads. The legal profession should not be allowed to ask the claimant to seek a medical report unless this has been recommended by a medical professional.

The issue of transparency is the killer for most people. Through all forms of social media, we know that transparency in everything is vital and this is just as true for insurance. Premiums are given without fully explaining the key contributions towards that premium, including wages, footfall, risks, claims and price increases. It is a failure for policyholders that premiums provided to them are not fully transparent. There must be greater transparency as to why the benefits of the reforms to date have not been passed on. Insurance companies should be required to clearly outline the rationale for year-on-year premium increases where there have been no claims on the policy.

I could go on and on on this subject; I could take the full 16 minutes without any problem. This is the reason I came into politics. It started with me trying to save my business and businesses like mine. That moved on to trying to help sports clubs, playgrounds, community facilities and motorists - everything that involved insurance. On its fun day last year, my GAA club of Navan O'Mahony's could not put a bouncy castle on site because it could not get insurance. It could not put in anything inflatable. Parades and festivals have stopped because of insurance. We do not want to see insurance for our cars, cafés, community groups, charities, football clubs and golf clubs rise. I guarantee that if we agree to the 16.7% increase as outlined in the personal injury guidelines, that is exactly what will happen. It will also impede the work of the Injuries Resolution Board even though the previous Government did all it could to get claims processed through it. Legal costs are already a substantial problem and will only increase if this proposal is adopted. Right now, businesses are faced with a myriad of increased costs, which we hear about every day, and we simply cannot add fuel to the fire by doing something that will drive premiums up.

As I mentioned previously in this House, I am one of those people who has been impacted. I absolutely know what is going on. Over the past few years, we have witnessed an excellent programme of insurance reform delivered by the previous Government. I strongly urge the Minister of State to invest the time in keeping this up. Our programme for Government committed to further action to drive down insurance costs impacting households, motorists and businesses. This is now our first early test. I trust the Minister of State not to let his local GAA club, local café, local crèche and local parades down. I ask him to please do all he can.