Irish Examiner view: Loyalty cuts both ways for customers

Insurance challenges

Our own Central Bank, utilising a lighter touch, has decided to regulate rather than ban. This means that insurers will be able to operate differently in the two jurisdictions. File picture: Leah Farrell/RollingNews.ie

Every so often we enter one of those periodic spells of introspection about the relationship between the Irish insurance industry and its customers that is, more or less, all of us.

After a certain amount of huffing and puffing about increases in premia well beyond the rate of inflation; the inclement weather we have been experiencing; the pernicious influence of ambulance-chasing lawyers; manifold exclusions for payment; the appetite of the citizenry for compensation claims; and the lack of realism in the levels of some awards made by the courts then much goes on as always. The ship of commerce sails on in a stately manner and the consumer picks up the bills.