I must now deal with a postponed division relating to amendment No. 3 to the motion regarding Motor Insurance. On Tuesday, 27 February 2018, on the question that the amendment to the motion be agreed to, a division was claimed, and in accordance with Standing Order 70(2), that division must be taken now.
Motor Insurance: Motion (Resumed) [Private Members]
The following motion was moved by Deputy Noel Grealish on Tuesday, 27 February 2018.
"That Dáil Éireann:
recognises that:
— it has been 19 months since the Government first established the cost of insurance working group and there has been no tangible progress in reducing insurance premiums;
— there are several barriers to obtaining motor insurance in Ireland;
— vehicles that are ten years old, but with a valid national car test, NCT, certificate, are being deemed uninsurable;
— returning emigrants have difficulty obtaining insurance as driving experience from foreign countries such as the United States of America, Canada, Australia, etc., is not taken into consideration;
— drivers with five penalty points are deemed uninsurable by a number of insurance companies, even if the points were gained over a three-year period;
— insurance premiums are higher because of insurance fraud, which costs the industry over €200 million every year;
— since Insurance Confidential was established in 2003 by Insurance Ireland, over 9,000 new cases of suspected fraud have been received and investigated to date; and
— the total amount paid out in motor claims by Insurance Ireland members increased by 23% from 2011 to 2016, while in the same years the amount paid out by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, across all classes of insurance increased by 50%; and
calls on the Government to:
— ensure that the motor insurance sector does not discriminate against individuals with older vehicles that hold a valid NCT, by providing reasonable quotations;
— ensure that the motor insurance sector does not discriminate against returning emigrants by accepting foreign driving experience as valid experience;
— make it mandatory for insurance companies to provide cover to people who have five penalty points or over, as insurance is a legal requirement for all drivers;
— allow people access to the European Union market for insurance that will be regulated by the Central Bank of Ireland;
— work towards eradicating the culture of insurance fraud in Ireland, by introducing stricter penalties for those found to be pursuing fraudulent insurance claims;
— introduce an independent assessment board as a means of dealing with claims assessments, to prevent exaggerated and misleading claims being pursued and settled;
— ensure that when accessing claims/awards, reference is made to best international practice guidelines; and
— deliver real transparency on how premiums are calculated and why quotes are refused, with access to a robust independent insurance appeals process."
Debate resumed on amendment No. 3:
To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:
“recognises that:
— the Minister for Finance is responsible for the development of the legal framework governing financial regulation and that neither he, nor the Central Bank of Ireland, can interfere in the provision or pricing of insurance products;
— insurers use risk factors in determining the provision and pricing of motor insurance offered to individual customers, including but not limited to the age, claims history, the driving experience, the number of penalty points that the driver may have and the age and type of vehicle being insured, and that these risk factors are a commercial matter for insurers;
— the Minister for Finance is unable therefore to make it mandatory to provide insurance to those that may pose a higher risk in the view of insurers, but that the declined cases agreement exists for those motorists that have been refused insurance;
— the ability of Irish consumers to purchase insurance from insurers in other European Union, EU, member states depends on those insurers being members of the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland which compensates victims of accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles;
— the Government, through the establishment of the cost of insurance working group, CIWG, in July 2016, has given a high priority to examining the factors contributing to the rising cost of motor insurance and addressing those within its control;
— in making any recommendations, account had to be taken of the need to ensure a financially stable insurance sector, that avoids failures of insurers through underpricing, as we have seen in the past, as well as the need to ensure that Ireland remains attractive for new entrants to the market;
— the CIWG and the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach, both concluded that there is no single policy or legislative "silver bullet" to immediately stem or reverse premium price rises, and that reforms of the sector would take time;
— in this context, in its report on the cost of motor insurance, the CIWG made 33 recommendations to tackle those factors that are influencing the increasing cost of motor insurance in the following areas:
— protecting the consumer;
— improving data availability;
— improving the personal injuries claims environment;
— reducing the costs in the claims process;
— reducing insurance fraud and uninsured driving; and
— promoting road safety and reducing collisions; and
— substantial progress has been made by the CIWG in the implementation of the recommendations to date, with more than half of the 71 recommended actions having been implemented to the end of 2017;
welcomes that the Central Statistics Office data for January indicates that private motor insurance premiums have reduced by 17% from their peak in July 2016;
commits the Government to:
— maintain the momentum of the work to date in order to ensure a more stable motor insurance market generally and to encourage the continuation of the current pattern of decreasing average premiums;
— ensure that each of the relevant departments responsible for the implementation of specific recommendations continue to give them priority, in order to meet the deadlines set out in the report’s associated action plan; and
— ensure that the implementation of recommendations contained in the CIWG’s most recent report on the cost of public and employer liability insurance is also prioritised, as many of these recommendations will have a positive influence on the factors related to the cost of motor insurance;
looks forward to the two further reports to be published by the Personal Injuries Commission this year, which will look at comparative systems and will benchmark Irish compensation awards levels with those in other countries; and
calls on the industry to continue to engage with the CIWG with regard to the implementation of recommendations addressed to it, including the need for them to be more pro-active in tackling fraud."
- (Minister of State at the Department of Finance, Deputy Patrick O'Donovan)
Amendment put:
The Dáil divided: Tá, 40; Níl, 83; Staon, 0.
Tá
- Bailey, Maria.
- Barrett, Seán.
- Breen, Pat.
- Brophy, Colm.
- Bruton, Richard.
- Burke, Peter.
- Canney, Seán.
- Cannon, Ciarán.
- Corcoran Kennedy, Marcella.
- Coveney, Simon.
- D'Arcy, Michael.
- Daly, Jim.
- Deasy, John.
- Deering, Pat.
- Doherty, Regina.
- Doyle, Andrew.
- Durkan, Bernard J.
- English, Damien.
- Farrell, Alan.
- Fitzgerald, Frances.
- Fitzpatrick, Peter.
- Flanagan, Charles.
- Harris, Simon.
- Heydon, Martin.
- Humphreys, Heather.
- Kehoe, Paul.
- Madigan, Josepha.
- McGrath, Finian.
- McHugh, Joe.
- McLoughlin, Tony.
- Murphy, Eoghan.
- Naughton, Hildegarde.
- Neville, Tom.
- Noonan, Michael.
- O'Connell, Kate.
- O'Donovan, Patrick.
- Ring, Michael.
- Rock, Noel.
- Ross, Shane.
- Stanton, David.
Níl
- Aylward, Bobby.
- Barry, Mick.
- Boyd Barrett, Richard.
- Brady, John.
- Brassil, John.
- Breathnach, Declan.
- Broughan, Thomas P.
- Browne, James.
- Buckley, Pat.
- Burton, Joan.
- Calleary, Dara.
- Casey, Pat.
- Cassells, Shane.
- Chambers, Jack.
- Chambers, Lisa.
- Collins, Michael.
- Collins, Niall.
- Connolly, Catherine.
- Coppinger, Ruth.
- Cowen, Barry.
- Crowe, Seán.
- Cullinane, David.
- Curran, John.
- Daly, Clare.
- Doherty, Pearse.
- Donnelly, Stephen S.
- Ellis, Dessie.
- Ferris, Martin.
- Fleming, Sean.
- Funchion, Kathleen.
- Gallagher, Pat The Cope.
- Grealish, Noel.
- Harty, Michael.
- Haughey, Seán.
- Healy, Seamus.
- Kelleher, Billy.
- Kenny, Gino.
- Kenny, Martin.
- Lahart, John.
- Lawless, James.
- Lowry, Michael.
- Martin, Catherine.
- McConalogue, Charlie.
- McDonald, Mary Lou.
- McGrath, Michael.
- McGuinness, John.
- Mitchell, Denise.
- Moynihan, Aindrias.
- Moynihan, Michael.
- Munster, Imelda.
- Murphy O'Mahony, Margaret.
- Murphy, Catherine.
- Murphy, Eugene.
- Murphy, Paul.
- Nolan, Carol.
- O'Brien, Darragh.
- O'Brien, Jonathan.
- O'Callaghan, Jim.
- O'Dea, Willie.
- O'Keeffe, Kevin.
- O'Loughlin, Fiona.
- O'Reilly, Louise.
- O'Rourke, Frank.
- O'Sullivan, Jan.
- Ó Broin, Eoin.
- Ó Caoláin, Caoimhghín.
- Ó Cuív, Éamon.
- Ó Laoghaire, Donnchadh.
- Ó Snodaigh, Aengus.
- Pringle, Thomas.
- Quinlivan, Maurice.
- Rabbitte, Anne.
- Ryan, Brendan.
- Ryan, Eamon.
- Scanlon, Eamon.
- Sherlock, Sean.
- Smith, Brendan.
- Smith, Bríd.
- Smyth, Niamh.
- Stanley, Brian.
- Tóibín, Peadar.
- Troy, Robert.
- Wallace, Mick.
Staon
Tellers: Tá, Deputies Joe McHugh and Tony McLoughlin; Níl, Deputies Noel Grealish and Michael Harty.
Amendment declared lost.
I move amendment No. 2:
To delete all words after “Dáil Éireann” and substitute the following:
“recognises that:
— it has been 19 months since the Government first established the cost of insurance working group, CIWG, and 13 months since the publication of its Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance;
— according to the fourth progress update published by CIWG for quarter 4 of 2017, two action points were completed after their original deadline had passed, and 15 action points have been delayed or at risk of being delayed;
— those either delayed or at risk of being delayed include legislation to underpin the protocol with Insurance Ireland on the communication of large increases in premiums, legislation for a claims information database and the establishment of that database and the establishment of a reliable dataset to examine the impact of legal and other fees on personal injury awards;
— there are several barriers to obtaining motor insurance in Ireland;
— ten year old vehicles with a valid national car test, NCT, certificate, are being deemed uninsurable;
— returning emigrants have difficulty obtaining insurance as driving experience from foreign countries is ignored;
— insurance fraud is one of the many reasons why insurance premiums are high, and this costs the industry over €200 million every year;
— since Insurance Confidential was established in 2003 by Insurance Ireland, over 9,000 new cases of suspected fraud have been received and investigated to date;
— approximately 70% of motor insurance claims are settled outside of the courts and outside of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, with no current transparency on those claims; and
— the investigation into alleged anti-competitive conduct in Ireland’s motor insurance industry is ongoing by the European Commission and the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission; and
calls on the Government to:
— urgently tackle the 15 action points in the Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance that have been delayed or are at risk of being delayed;
— bring forward legislation and require insurers to provide a breakdown of the premium cost to the customer and also provide more information to the customer on how premiums are calculated;
— bring forward legislation and establish a national claims information database, before the current deadline of the end of June 2018;
— ensure that the motor insurance sector does not discriminate against individuals with older vehicles that hold a valid NCT, by providing reasonable quotations;
— ensure that the motor insurance sector does not discriminate against returning emigrants by taking into account foreign driving experience;
— facilitate and work towards more competition by helping to create a single European Union, EU, market for motor and other insurance to enable customers to look in other European countries for insurance and to ensure customers are offered consistent and adequate consumer and regulatory protection in each EU jurisdiction;
— work towards eradicating the culture of insurance fraud in Ireland, by introducing stricter penalties for those found to be pursuing fraudulent insurance claims;
— ensure that when assessing claims-awards, reference is made to best international practice guidelines;
— deliver real transparency on how premiums are calculated and why quotes are refused, with access to a robust independent insurance appeals process;
— bring forward legislation that would provide for the liquidation of any insurance company regulated in another country as in the Setanta Insurance and Enterprise Insurance cases;
— develop a general protocol that requires insurance companies to notify policyholders of claims made against them before settlement;
— ensure that the Personal Injuries Commission report on benchmark comparisons with other countries with regards to personal injury claims and compensation and report on alternative compensation and resolution models; and
— establish a fully functioning database to identify uninsured drivers compelling insurance companies to provide the driver license number before the current deadline of the end of December 2018.”
Amendment put and declared carried.
Motion, as amended, agreed to.