Calculating risk is key to success for insurance companies and the players in Ireland's motor industry are putting it to good use in recent weeks not in turning a profit but in sidestepping the heavy hand of Government intervention.

Despite loudly protesting the interim findings of the Government-established Motor Insurance Advisory Board that all categories of motorists were profitable and young drivers were even more so, the industry seems disinclined to wait for the group's final report. Instead, it is finding a range of ways to dramatically reduce the punitive rates it charges young drivers for the right to drive.

Last week, Axa offered young motorists the chance to cut their premiums by 45 per cent - provided they installed a Big Brother type monitor in the car at their own cost and complied with all speed limits. This week, Hibernian cast itself as the more trusting insurer, allowing less experienced drivers a 20 per cent discount on the back of completion of a one-day advanced motoring course and a further 10 per cent if they agree to stay off the roads between 11p.m. and 6a.m.

Not that the industry believes its charges were excessive, of course........