Pat Casey (Fianna Fail)

I welcome the Minister of State to what is a very important debate on insurance. Fianna Fáil welcomes this debate on insurance and will be supporting the motion.

In Government, we are committed to tackling insurance costs to reform and ensure fair competition in all sectors. Since 2020, we have delivered a series of reforms under the action plan for insurance reform. While insurance premiums in some sectors, such as motor insurance, have fallen since 2020, more needs to be done to secure larger reductions in premiums across a broader range of areas. I will expand on that later. Having demonstrated how reforms can deliver reduced insurance prices, Fianna Fáil believes a further series of steps should be implemented.

The 2020 action plan for insurance reform successfully demonstrated the value of an all-in Government approach, led by the Cabinet subgroup on insurance reform, to reduce the cost and increase the provision of insurance, improving competition and affordability with key achievements including the rebalancing of the duty of care, reform of the injuries resolution board, the introduction of the personal injuries guidelines, which I will expand on later, enhancement of the national claims information database, and increasing competition in the market. Despite all this progress, the sector still faces insurance issues with affordability and availability. The benefits of the reform have not been fully passed on to customers and businesses. I believe further action to drive down insurance costs impacting households, drivers and businesses is required to ensure customers are paying a fair price for their insurance premiums.

Previous speakers have already mentioned the proposal by the Judicial Council to increase personal injury awards levels by 16.7% will wipe out any progress that has been made in the reductions of some premiums and will add a cost to sectors that have seen no decrease in their insurance premiums. Having a family business myself, this is one area where, in our case, since 2016, we have seen our insurance go up sixfold to a level that is almost unsustainable. We have heard speakers talk about transparency. There is absolutely no transparency in the insurance sector, specifically when it comes to potential claims businesses have received which can take six or seven years to resolve. Any company in that situation is being penalised by an additional premium every year because of the potential claim on the business. Even in seven years' time, if that claim leads to no payment, there is no rebate for the business. It will have suffered that increase in insurance premium for those seven years. The reality for small family businesses, and RGDATA has said this, is that they are on the edge and an increase in insurance premiums will only make them unviable, with the result that we will see many more family businesses close down across the country. The sector of small, indigenous family businesses is in trouble and we need to do more to support them across the whole sector and industry.

I welcome that our manifesto and the programme for Government pledge to develop a new action plan for insurance reform with a focus on encouraging further competition and working to enhance transparency and affordability across all types of insurance. The programme for Government, Securing Ireland's Future, commits to publish a new action plan for insurance reform. The plan's implementation will be supported by the re-establishment of the Cabinet subcommittee group on insurance reform to ensure insurance issues continue to receive the highest level of focus across Government, co-ordinated and chaired by the Tánaiste.

I also recognise the Minister of State has recently finished in the form of intense engagement with key stakeholders, including Insurance Ireland and the main insurance companies in the Irish market, to set out the Government's expectations that savings arising from the reform agenda will be reflected in reduced premiums as well as an increase in availability of cover. The programme for Government also commits to the expansion and support of the office to promote competition in the insurance market to ensure Ireland remains an attractive market for insurance. We have spoken about this before and it is another key element. The office chaired by the Minister of State has played a critical role in encouraging insurance companies to broaden their risk appetite. This has facilitated the coverage for high-risk sectors such as equestrian activities, adventure tourism and childcare. It beggars belief that childcare is considered a high-risk industry.

The Government remains committed to ongoing engagement with industries through the OPCIM to ensure reforms translate into increased competition and availability of cover and insurance. We are committed to continuing the work of insurance reform to ensure all sectors benefit from reduced premiums and increased availability of cover.