Public meetings on car insurance hikes to begin September 7

An Oireachtas committee is to hold a series of public meetings on the spiralling cost of motor insurance, the first of which will take place on September 7.

John McGuinness, chairman of the joint finance committee pointed to the 35.5% year-on-year increase in premiums. “Our work will examine all aspects of the motor insurance industry including how insurance claims are assessed and processed and the impact of the cost associated with these claims, how data is managed between relevant bodies and the effectiveness of current regulation,” he said. “Policy premiums rising at unsustainable rates are a threat to the effective functioning of the wider economy.”

Meanwhile, Junior Finance Minister Eoghan Murphy said he wants, by the end of October, to identify “priority actions” needed to tackle the rising costs and that, during November and December, he aimed to agree an action plan to allow government departments to implement those priority actions in the new year.