Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 2006 > Committee on Enterprise and Small Business > Report No. 06 - Third Interim Report on Reforms to the Irish Insurance market

Appendix 2

Categorisation of Recommendations in the First and Second Interim Reports

1Recommendations implemented

1Sanctions for breaches to compulsory motor insurance obligations should be introduced as quickly as possible and, in particular, uninsured vehicles should be confiscated.

8The proposed Civil Liability and Courts Bill should contain a provision that would require judges, on making decisions in relation to the level of awards, to have regard to the Book of Quantum applied by PIAB.

9PIAB, as soon as possible and certainly within six months of its establishment, should deal with public liability and motor accident claims, as well as employer’s liability claims.

10Where, not having accepted a PIAB award, the court award is equal to or less than a PIAB award, legal costs should not be allowed to the claimant.

11The measures in the proposed Civil Liability and Courts Bill to eliminate fraudulent and exaggerated claims should be adopted.

12Specific judges should be allocated to deal with personal injury cases and they should be required to undertake training in relation to insurance issues.

14The Government should immediately bring in legislation for the regulation of driving schools.

17A dedicated traffic corps within An Garda Síochána should be established at the earliest opportunity with a view to increasing the enforcement of road traffic regulations and reducing deaths and injuries on the roads.

19The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority should review the Irish solvency regulations to ensure that they are in the best interests of policyholders, existing insurance companies operating in Ireland and potential entrants.

20The Government should permit insurance companies, as part of their solvency requirements, to invest in public/private partnerships and infrastructural projects on a basis to be determined annually by the Minister for Finance

21An annual review of the insurance market should be carried out by the Joint Committee to consider whether its expectations of reform are being realised.

23The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority should give effect to the IBEC/Insurance Industry Federation Communications Guidelines by statutory order, so that the guidelines have the power of law.

27The Competition Authority should publish at least an interim report on the insurance market before the end of 2003.

35IFSRA, the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, should give consideration to the issue of whether brokers should operate only on a fee basis.

39The Bill to make new provisions for health and safety should be introduced immediately.

41The Departments of Finance and Justice, Equality and Law Reform should remove any impediment to the impounding of uninsured vehicles by the Garda.

43The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment should introduce road safety instruction to the second-level school curriculum as a matter of urgency.

46The new Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Bill should be passed by the Oireachtas as soon as possible.

47The Competition Authority should publish its final report on the insurance market as soon as possible and not later than then end of October 2004.

50IFSRA should monitor the level of insurance capacity in the Irish market and, where there is a lack of capacity, should draw attention publicly to the emerging difficulty.

2The recommendations below have been accepted and will be kept under review by the Joint Committee to ensure that they are implemented

3The Government should negotiate a common European market protection for insurance policyholders against the insolvency of an insurer.

13Legislation should be introduced to permit the keeping of central records on claimants by insurance companies, subject to appropriate safeguards.

15Penalty points should be extended to all motoring offences affecting road safety as quickly as possible and all the necessary infrastructure of IT systems should be put in place to achieve this.

16All speed cameras should be operated by An Garda Síochána.

28All regulatory barriers or regulatory impositions on insurance companies that make entry to the Irish market (for Irish or other EU companies) more difficult than to any other EU country should be removed by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority immediately.

29The Government should establish an Inquiry, composed mainly of non-lawyers, into the present levels of legal fees in personal injury actions. The Inquiry would undertake a study of the costs and would consider whether the current level of fees being awarded by the Taxing Master are reasonable in relation to the work being undertaken by solicitors in preparing cases for trial. This Inquiry would also consider the necessity for the extensive use of barristers in personal injury actions in the Irish courts.

37The Health and Safety Authority and the insurance companies should specify appropriate health and safety standards with a view to offering premium reductions for companies that comply with such standards.

38The Health and Safety Authority should be properly resourced so that Irish safety performance levels become among the best in the EU and it should meet the target of 8,000 inspections per annum.

44The Government should give priority to the speedy enactment of the Road Traffic Bill and the Driver, Testing and Standards Authority Bill.

52IFSRA should make regulations to permit insurance brokers, subject to a competency test, to deal on behalf of their clients with any insurance company and the term ‘authorised adviser’ should be discontinued. Firms that presently call themselves ‘insurance brokers’ and who do not qualify under the competency test should be required to call themselves ‘Multi-Agency Intermediaries’.

3Recommendations in the First Interim Report not yet accepted and now reiterated by the Joint Committee

4The 2% levy, which is now merely a source of tax revenue, should be abolished.

6An arrangement should be entered into between insurance companies and hospitals that would refund hospitals for the costs of treating injured persons at normal health insurance rates but that would avoid the pursuit of individuals to make claims on insurance companies.

7The Government should establish an expert group that would consider the information now published by PIAB on the levels of awards in the Irish courts, the levels of UK awards and the levels of awards in other jurisdictions. This group would recommend a level of awards that would be appropriate to Ireland. The recommendations of the group should be published in draft form to allow all interested parties, including representatives of victims, to make submissions on the proposals.

42Random breath tests for drink driving should be introduced.

18The Minister for Transport should publish a detailed set of proposals to deal with young driver licensing and training, so as to reduce the wholly unacceptable level of deaths and injuries among young drivers.

30The Taxing Master should not be, nor have been, a member of the legal profession. The decisions of the Taxing Master should be subject to appeal to a lay appeals body.

31In-house barristers should have a right to appear in court in defence of claims against the insurance companies that employ them.

45Insurance companies should provide significant incentives/penalties to young drivers between the ages of 17 and 25 to use governor or cruise control limits in cars.

Financial Regulator

24Where a policyholder objects to a settlement of a claim by an insurer, the insurer should not be able to settle the claim unless, having asked for an arbitrator to consider the issue, the arbitrator finds in favour of the insurer. The losing party should pay for the arbitration.

25Policyholders should see clear evidence of the benefit of being claim-free. Accident-free policyholders or those with low levels of accidents should be seen to be rewarded.

26All policyholders should, on renewal, receive information on the basis on which the premium is calculated.

32There should be no production quotas established by any insurance company that might inhibit or prevent brokers from giving independent advice to their clients.

34Insurance companies should not discriminate against competing brokers in making available renewal information.

40Organisations, meeting certain financial criteria, should be able to self-insure for all motor risks.

48The Irish solvency requirements for new entrants should be exactly the same as for existing market participants.

49Irish solvency requirements should be no higher than the norm required by EU regulation.

51Insurance companies should be required to remind policyholders of the renewal date two months prior to renewal and to submit a quotation to the policyholder one month prior to the renewal date.

53IFSRA should carry out a fundamental review of the insurance broker market with a view to substantially improving the operation of that market, particularly in relation to transparency for the consumer.

4Recommendations to be monitored, those not required, and those to be replaced with a new recommendation

2The provisions of the Court Bill 2001, in relation to the financial limits of the courts, should be brought into force, and the Courts Service should bring forward proposals to reform the courts as a matter of urgency.

5The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority should facilitate the placement of Irish motor insurance business outside the jurisdiction by amending existing regulations.

22The Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority, in the interests of transparency, should publish the justification given by insurance companies for changes in their premiums.

33A scheme for licensed brokers should be established by the Irish Financial Services Regulatory Authority that would permit any broker to deal, on behalf of clients, with any insurance company.

36An annual awards scheme should be introduced to recognise the companies that have had no accidents for several years and those that have made a significant effort to improve safety.

5New recommendations

54The Government should consider holding a Constitutional Referendum to permit random testing for substance abuse that may be impairing a driver’s ability to drive safely.

55The National Council for Curriculum Assessment should make early provision for the inclusion of the driver theory test for secondary school students as part of their transition year studies. In addition, secondary schools should be required to provide simulated driving instruction for all students on reaching 17 years.

56An Inter-Ministerial Group should be established, comprising the Taoiseach, the Ministers for Health and Children, Transport, Justice, Equality and Law Reform, Education and Science, and Finance, to oversee radical changes in relation to road safety.

57The proposed Road Safety Authority should be independent in the carrying out of its functions and should be adequately funded, jointly by the Exchequer and the insurance companies, to finance its activities.

58In order to encourage drivers to stay within the speed limits, all insurance companies should be required to offer significant discounts to drivers who voluntarily accept monitoring of their speeds; these discounts to vary depending on the perceived risk and to be substantial for young drivers.