Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 30 January 2018
79. Deputy Pearse Doherty asked the Minister for Finance the legislative steps planned to tackle the ongoing high cost of insurance, especially motor insurance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4312/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraAs the Deputy is aware, the Cost of Insurance Working Group was established in July 2016 to identify and examine the drivers of the cost of insurance and to recommend short, medium and long term measures, legislative and otherwise, to address the issue of increasing insurance costs, taking account of the requirement for the need to ensure a financially stable insurance sector.
The Working Group published its Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance in January 2017 and made 33 recommendations, along with a detailed Action Plan.
Legislative steps were recommended in a number of areas, in particular for my own Department. These are as follows:
- Establishment of the National Claims Information Database in the Central Bank of Ireland, through the Central Bank (National Claims Information Database) Bill, of which the General Scheme was published in December 2017;
- Implementation of the Review of the Framework for Motor Insurance Compensation in Ireland, through the Insurance (Amendment) Bill, currently being drafted with the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel;
- Transposition of the Insurance Distribution Directive, through transposing regulations currently being drafted; and
- Consideration, with the Central Bank, of amending the relevant regulations regarding communications between insurers and consumers, with regard to premium information and renewal notice periods, which is currently being consulted on.
With regard to other Departments, legislative steps were recommended including:
- Enhancement of the powers of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, through the PIAB (Amendment) Bill, of which the General Scheme was published in July 2017;
- Consideration of measures necessary to implement Pre-Action Protocols for personal injury cases, through relevant consultation and publication of Heads of Bill, which is currently being developed;
- Prepare criminal justice legislation if required to implement a fully functioning integrated insurance fraud database, which has yet to be finally determined; and the
- Requirement for insurance companies to provide the driver licence number as part of work to establish a fully functioning database to identify uninsured drivers, through a proposed amendment of the Road Traffic Act 2016. This is currently being considered as part of the broader review of the database work.
Quarterly updates provide more detailed information on the implementation of each of the Recommendations and Actions. The fourth quarterly update is scheduled to be published within the next few weeks and will be included a full update on each recommendation.
