The Irish Government has set out a new action plan aimed at curbing rising insurance premiums, with a focus on transparency, market competitiveness and enforcement against fraud.
The Action Plan for Insurance Reform includes 26 measures involving the Departments of Finance, Justice, and Enterprise. It identifies 10 priority areas intended to have the greatest impact on the cost and availability of insurance. The strategy builds on earlier reforms announced in 2020 and will guide policy through to 2029.
Key proposals include a new Transparency Code to be developed in partnership with the insurance sector, an expanded role for the Injuries Resolution Board (IRB), and tougher sanctions for insurance fraud. The Government is also considering steps to reduce the number of uninsured drivers on Irish roads, according to a report from The Irish Times.
The plan comes two weeks after Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan confirmed he would not seek Oireachtas approval for a Judicial Council proposal to raise personal injury award guidelines by nearly 17%, following sustained political and industry pressure.
Tánaiste Simon Harris (pictured above) said the measures were aimed at keeping costs down for small businesses in a volatile global environment.
“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,” he said, as quoted in The Irish Times. “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 sector broadly welcomed the update. Brokers Ireland described the plan as “a meaningful opportunity to build a more affordable, transparent, and competitive insurance market in Ireland.”
Hazel Rock, head of insurance services at the group, said expanding the IRB’s powers would be key to reducing costs. “The IRB has a critical role to play in lowering the cost of insurance and improving the speed and fairness of outcomes,” she said. “Making its awards binding in more cases and encouraging default mediation would represent a step change in how injury claims are managed in Ireland.”
According to the report, the Alliance for Insurance Reform called for immediate premium reductions and warned against any delay in passing on savings already achieved.
“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.
