Action plan a 'damp squib'

The Tánaiste, Ms Harney, has gone soft on the insurance industry, Opposition spokesmen said yesterday. Reacting to Ms Harney's announcement of an action plan for the insurance sector, Fine Gael spokesman on enterprise, trade and employment, Mr Phil Hogan, said she had "persistantly failed" to tackle the insurance crisis.

"It is incredible that, nearly six months after the Motor Insurance Advisory Body report, the Tánaiste is only now getting around to giving a wishy-washy response." He said Ms Harney had no intention of taking on the vested interests in the insurance industry and the legal profession.

The Labour Party spokesman Mr Tommy Broughan said the action plan was "a damp squib".

"This is not so much an action plan as simply a list of reheated promises, many of which have been made before." He said the establishment of a Personal Injuries Assessment Board had first been recommended in 1997.

The chief executive of the Chambers of Commerce of Ireland, Mr John Dunne, welcomed the decision to establish an assessment body. He said the body would help reduce the cost of delivering claims, adding that the situation regarding insurance had reached crisis point for business.

The employers' organisation, IBEC, said the prioritisation of the recommendations made by the MIAB was vital to achieving urgent action on "crippling insurance costs to business, industry and private policy holders".

ISME, the small and medium-sized firms organisation, said Ms Harney's plan would be judged on the impact it had on premiums. It said that 30,000 jobs were at risk because employers could not get or afford insurance cover.