Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 21 June 2018
69. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if he will request the CSO to report on the cost of public and employer liability insurance; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27201/18]
Amharc ar fhreagra70. Deputy Michael McGrath asked the Minister for Finance if his Department has data on insurance premiums in the area of public and employer liability; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27202/18]
Amharc ar fhreagraI propose to take Questions Nos. 69 and 70 together.
At the outset the Deputy should note that my Department does not collect or hold data on insurance premiums. However, increasing the availability of data in relation to Employer and Public Liability Insurance is a matter which was discussed by the Cost of Insurance Working Group and its Report on the Cost of Employer and Public Liability Insurance (2018) recommends a number of actions to improve transparency in this area.
Among these, Recommendation 1 requires the Central Statistics Office to consider the feasibility of collecting price information on the cost of insurance to businesses with this exercise to commence by the end of Q2 2018. My officials have been informed by the CSO that this review commenced in May. They have been advised that this work will involve the following steps:
- Researching the methodological approach including contacting other countries that already compile such an index;
- Meeting with each of the relevant insurance companies to explain the data requirements for the creation of such an index;
- Requesting sample data (retrospective) from the companies;
- Compiling the index based on the sample data and testing the index for plausibility, accuracy and quality; and
- Writing up the conclusions of the research into the feasibility report
In addition, the CSO has stated that there will be significant methodological and practical challenges that will need to be overcome in order to produce a price index for business insurance. From a practical point of view, the new survey if deemed feasible, will have to be completed on a voluntary basis as there are no legal instruments in place to compel insurance companies to respond to data requests. It should also be noted that from a methodological point of view, the market for business insurance is far more heterogeneous compared to the relatively homogeneous market for motor insurance. This creates difficulties when trying to decide on the product or service which must be tracked consistently over time. You should also be aware that it would not be usual to publish a price index with just a couple of data points so a number of months of data would need to be compiled before publication of any price data for such premiums.
The complexity of this project was factored into the timeline of the action plan and consequently the CSO is scheduled to deliver its feasibility report by Q4 2018. If it concludes that such an index is possible to produce, then the implementation process will begin in such a way that allows the collection of the necessary data to be done in a credible and effective way.
In parallel with the CSO’s feasibility study, Recommendation 4 of the Report provides that the Department of Finance should publish a key information report on Employer and Public Liability insurance claims by the end of this year. In this regard, my Department has written to Insurance Ireland requesting that the necessary data is supplied to the Department in good time so that the Department can produce the planned report within the agreed timeline.
