Michael Clifford: Delay in personal injury payouts reform costs us all

Despite clear evidence of the need to reform the hefty payouts in courts, there is no sense of urgency among the Oireachtas or the judiciary to resolve the issue of personal injury payments

Sinn Féin finance spokesman Pearse Doherty at the launch of the Insurance (Restriction of Differential Pricing and Profiling) Bill 2020, which aims to ban dual pricing from the insurance market. Picture: Gareth Chaney

Vested interests were having a rare old time of it at the expense of the compliant public this week. In the Dáil, a private member’s bill from Pearse Doherty on dual pricing in the insurance industry was shot down. Doherty has been on a crusade against insurance rip-offs for a few years now.

In 2019, he complained to the Central Bank about dual pricing, the practice in which insurance companies charge more to particular categories of customers based on factors other than risk. Those who don’t shop around, or are not clued into the market, face hikes even when they’ve been loyal to a company for years.