We welcome the publication this week of the report on the rising cost of motor insurance, and commend Minister Eoghan Murphy and his Working Group for its excellent and dedicated work with this pressing matter.
Having actively participated in the consultation process with the Working Group and the Sub-Group on Claims, we fully support the Working Groups recommendations which aim to bring about more transparency in the insurance sector. We also broadly support the many individual recommendations put forward as a means of reforming the motor insurance sector.
As per our submissions to the Committee, we particularly support recommendation 14 which calls for the establishment of a Personal Injuries Commission (PIC) and in particular action no 32 which requests that the PIC look at benchmarking international personal injury awards with those in Ireland and report on alternative compensation and resolution models.
This measure, if implemented in tandem with other recommendations, would address the fundamental problems in the claims/awards system:
- Too much money in the insurance claims system
- Insufficient scrutiny of claims
- A claims process that is too expensive and lacking certainty
As we are seeing on the ground, the rising cost of insurance is already beginning to impact on Ireland’s tourist sector, of which car rental is an integral element.
We hope that the recommendations in this report, in particular recommendation 14, are actioned to bring back some normality to the market without further delay.
Furthermore, we are ready and willing to continue working with other stakeholders in business, government and particular the Personal Injuries Commission to help implement the recommendations contained in the report.
