A new plan from the Government is aiming to tackle rising insurance premiums, with plans for a transparency code and measures to boost competitiveness.
The Action Plan for Insurance Reform contains 26 actions across the Departments of Finance, Justice, and Enterprise, and has identified 10 priorities that will have the biggest impact on insurance affordability, transparency and availability.
It builds on the measures announced in 2020, and will cover up to 2029.
Among the six key themes of the plan are transparency, competitiveness, fraud and innovation. The Department of Finance is set to work with the insurance sector to bring in a Transparency Code, while there are also plans to strengthen the powers and remit of the Injuries Resolution Board. Tougher penalties for insurance fraud are also being considered, and measures to reduce the number of uninsured drivers are being examined.
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The plan comes barely a fortnight after Minister for Justice Jim O’Callaghan has bowed to pressure on a plan by the Judicial Council to hike personal injury award guidelines by almost 17 per cent, confirming that he will not ask the Oireachtas to rubber stamp the judiciary’s proposed tweak to payouts.
“In a rapidly changing global environment, we must place an unrelenting focus on enhancing our competitiveness and controlling the controllables. This means ensuring the cost of doing business is not prohibitive for our SMEs,” said Tánaiste Simon Harris.
“It is vital that Ireland does what it can to support businesses to thrive. This new Action Plan builds on the strong insurance reforms to-date which have led to improvements in transparency and have seen personal injury awards reduce. By Government working together, we can deliver tangible progress in this next phase of insurance reform so that the benefits are felt by both businesses and consumers.”
The insurance industry broadly welcomed the plan, with Brokers Ireland calling it “a meaningful opportunity to build a more affordable, transparent, and competitive insurance market in Ireland.”
“The IRB has a critical role to play in lowering the cost of insurance and improving the speed and fairness of outcomes,” said Hazel Rock, head of insurance services at the group. “Making its awards binding in more cases and encouraging default mediation would represent a step change in how injury claims are managed in Ireland,” she added.
The Alliance for Insurance Reform meanwhile urged immediate reductions in premiums across the board.
“Policyholders should not have to wait a day longer to see meaningful and sustained reductions in their premiums and any attempt to use today’s action plan as reason not to pass on existing savings, must be pushed back strongly against by government,” it said in a statement.
