Boost for business as Competitiveness Council adds voice for lower insurance costs

Council wants to lower court payouts to bring them into line with other jurisdictions, ensuring consistency of award levels

The chair of the State's National Competitiveness and Productivity Council added her voice to calls for reductions to court payouts in personal injury claims.

Business activists who have long campaigned for cuts for insurance costs have got a boost after the chair of the State's National Competitiveness and Productivity Council added her voice to calls for reductions to court payouts in personal injury claims. 

Frances Ruane said the council, which was set up to advise the Government, had found "compelling evidence" that Irish small firms were being undermined by the high costs of paying for employers’ and public liability insurance, partly because court payments for personal injury claims are relatively high.               

Ms Ruane said the council wants to lower the costs of court payouts to bring them "into line with other jurisdictions, ensuring consistency of award levels, and reducing settlement costs". 

"Taken together, these actions should lead to lower insurance costs and increase the availability of insurance," she said. The council's intervention marks something as a growing official consensus about the need for reform of insurance costs in the Republic. 

Ms Ruance cites a number of official reports, including the Government’s Action Plan on Insurance Reform, the Competition and Consumer Protection's study on public liability insurance, and the Central Bank's report on differential pricing for car and home premiums. "The council believes that it is timely to re-examine the issue of high insurance costs, and to re-emphasise the importance of competitive insurance costs for Irish enterprises, particularly, SMEs," it said.  

Guidelines

It also welcomed the Government’s plans and was "hopeful that the adoption of the personal injuries guidelines will fully address this issue and insurance costs will gradually start to fall", it said. 

Business activities have campaigned since 2015 when insurance costs started to shoot up again, focusing on court payouts for personal injuries and the high costs of all types of insurance.

In the past, Peter Boland, director of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, has signalled out the slow progress Government was making and cited 21 reports published into insurance in recent years. 

The Judicial Council is due to decide on repacing the so-called Book of Quantum, while there are calls to rebalance employers' liability and reforms to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board that was set up almost 20 years ago.