The head of one of Ireland's leading insurance companies has called for the Personal Injuries Board to be given statutory powers to address the issue of spiralling insurance claims.
FDB Group Chief Executive Fiona Muldoon said the considerable rise in the level of awards was having a detrimental effect on the cost of insurance premiums.
Ms Muldoon made the call as her insurer recorded a loss of €3.65m for the first half of the year, which she has largely attributed to the high cost of claims.
She said there needed to be reform to tackle the rising costs of claims and price inflation in the insurance sector, and that in the absence of such reform "we believe Irish insurance customers will bear the cost of much higher premiums than those seen in other countries".
Speaking on RTÉ's Morning Ireland she said there needs to be a coherent effort around fraud and claims exaggeration.
"Rates will only fall when the costs of the awards start to fall. It needs a system-wide response.
"The issue of failing companies like Setanta and Enterprise needs to be tackled in meaningful ways.
"We need to understand we can either have cheap insurance or high court awards, but we can't have both.
"I think if we do decide to tackle them then it can be as quick as legislation can be passed to give the Personal Injuries Board increased powers and to introduce systems whereby there is protocol" to deal with the issues efficiently.
At present, the Personal Injuries Board's role is to assess claims for compensation for anyone who has been in an accident and suffered an injury, however, it does not have any statutory powers.
The self-funded organisation was set up by the government in 2004.
FBD's €3.65m pre-tax loss for H1 compared with a €96.4m loss for same period in 2015.
However, last year's H1 loss was inflated by an €88m top-up of the company's claims reserve.
Gross premiums fell €4m, or 2%, to €181m, while there was a €10m reduction in the amount of business conducted through brokers.
During the first six months of 2016, an 11% rise in average premiums was offset by a 7% drop in the volume of policies on its books.
MORNING BRIEFS:
All three major share indexes in the US hit record highs last night - on the back of rising oil prices and a strong performance from some leading retailers.
Both the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 rose by around half a percent yesterday - while the Dow Jones was up by more than 0.6 percent to bring all three to fresh highs on the same day, the first time this has happened since 1999.
Markets were buoyed by a 4 percent rise the price of oil, which was prompted by suggestions from Saudi Arabia's energy minister that suppliers should cut production to re-balance global prices.
Meanwhile shares in retailers including Macy's, Kohl's and Nordstrom all rose in trade on the back of better-than-expected quarterly results from the sector.
Some are now expressing concern about the high valuations some US listed companies now have, however, with firms on the S&P now listed at around 17 times their expected profit.
***
Overnight data from China was considerably less positive with signs of continued weakness in the country's retail and investment sectors.
Retail sales in China rose by 10.2 percent year on year in July, according to its National Bureau of Statistics, however that was a significant slow down on the June figure and well behind market expectations.
An official at the bureau warned that China's economy remains in a period of adjustment and downward pressure - with separate data also showing slowing growth in private investment.
