Richard Bruton makes bid to reduce insurance pay-outs

It has emerged today that Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton has met with the President of the High Court, in a bid to reign in insurance pay-outs.

Large awards are being blamed for a 30% hike in Motor insurance premiums over the past year.

However, the Injuries Board has reported that its pay-outs have only increased by 1%.

Brendan Nevin, the CEO of AA Ireland, says the board only deals with a small proportions of claims.

He said: "About 70% of cases get settled directly by insurers and as the Injuries Board have pointed out, we have no visibility of what's happening there because they don't publish the information. And that's a big, big problem.

"We do know that about 10% of cases are settled by courts and court awards are far higher than Injury Board awards.

"The 70% that are settled by the insurance industry are probably affected by the ones that are settled in court."