The Alliance for Insurance Reform has expressed concern that the Cabinet Sub-Group for Insurance Reform may be regressing to a box-ticking exercise.
The Alliance has today published a review of the Government's progress on insurance reform in 2021, stating that the review does not make for great reading.
Peter Boland, Director of the Alliance, said the Government acknowledged the seriousness of the insurance crisis in establishing the Cabinet Sub-Group for Insurance Reform last year.
This group is chaired by the Tánaiste and includes many of the key Ministers and Ministers of State involved in the issue.
"After some initial progress on issues such as the Judicial Guidelines, we are concerned that the Sub-Group may be regressing to a box-ticking exercise, recently claiming that 34 actions out of 66 have been completed when what is needed is an intense focus on meaningful reforms," Mr Boland said.
In its review, the Alliance said that for the sake of every household or organisation that has visitors, customers, participants or recreational users, the duty of care must be urgently rebalanced in a manner that is "fair, reasonable, practical, and proportionate" and in the public interest.
It also called for reform of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board.
It said that PIAB is a "sound concept" which is rooted in the common good, intended to deliver compensation to injured parties without excessive legal costs, but added that it has been fundamentally undermined by numerous and ongoing challenges by the legal profession.
On legal fees, the Alliance said that the Government appears to be moving on the "eye-watering" cost of legal fees, which act as a brake on much more than the fair resolution of personal injury claims in Ireland.
The Department of Justice has initiated an economic and legal review of the options available to cap fees.
"This initiative cannot be allowed to falter on the back of the intense opposition we expect from the legal industry, intent on protecting its own vested interests," the Alliance stated.
The Alliance also said that a claims database available to all insurers is essential to allow them to protect policyholders from fraudulent claims and to ensure fair competition.
But it noted that InsuranceLink, the only such database in Ireland, is owned and controlled by Insurance Ireland, the insurance industry representative body.
"We have urged Government to take the database into State control, ideally through PIAB, but after four years of discussions, we have still not seen any proposals from Government and every time they are challenged on the issue, they cite vague data protection concerns," Peter Boland said.
"This is simply not good enough and policyholders deserve a more positive response in 2022," he added.
On the issue of lower insurance costs, the Alliance said the process of reacting to the reforms implemented so far (most notably the Judicial Guidelines, the Garda Insurance Fraud Coordination Office and the Perjury Act), has already begun in the motor insurance sector, where there is meaningful competition.
"Respondents to our ongoing policyholder survey are reporting an average 10% reduction in motor premiums on renewals since April," Peter Boland said.
"In the Liability sector however, where there is markedly less competition, policyholders are experiencing average increases of 16%. Government must apply intense pressure on the incumbents to deliver reductions while we wait for additional competition to enter the market," he added.
The Alliance also said it is clear that additional underwriting capacity and competition are urgently needed in the Liability insurance market and said the Office for Insurance Competition will have to step up several gears in 2022.
