Insurance Ireland welcomes Cabinet agreement on implementation of the new Judicial Council Personal Injuries Guidelines

Issued 9 March, 2021.  Insurance Ireland today welcomed Cabinet agreement on Minister Helen McEntee’s proposals for the implementation of the new Judicial Council Personal Injuries Guidelines. Insurance Ireland has been calling for reform for many years and believes that meaningful reductions in award levels will benefit consumers and lead to decreased volatility and increased competition in the market over time.  It is committed to working with Government and other stakeholders to achieve greater reform in the claims environment in order to bring more certainty and sustainability to the Insurance market. 

Moyagh Murdock, CEO, Insurance Ireland, said:

“Insurance Ireland welcomes the expediency of today’s Cabinet decision and the clarity it brings on the implementation of the new guidelines. Overall, we believe that the guidelines are a very important step that will help to reduce costs over time. We strongly support the Action Plan for Insurance Reform and it will be important to focus on this agenda, including reform of PIAB and the rebalancing of the duty of care between business and the citizen so that trivial and frivolous claims can be eliminated from the system. 

While competition law prevents us from commenting on future pricing in the market, we are optimistic for the future of insurance in Ireland. The last time Ireland got to grips with costs with the establishment of Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) in 2004, insurers responded positively and consumers benefitted. The new guidelines, which we note are mandatory, should ultimately result in personal injury claims being processed more efficiently and consistently. We believe the need for litigation will diminish over time and as a result will unclog the Courts as the Personal Injuries Assessment Board will also operate under these new guidelines.

These are all realistic and positive outcomes from the new Guidelines and we believe that the result will be fair and consistent for claimants in general.  We all need to work now to ensure that the consumer benefits from these changes.  The recent NCID report points to reductions in premiums between Q2 2018 and Q4 2019, and CSO data since then has pointed to a continuing downward trend.  The market is very competitive and is very capable of reacting to the proposed lower cost of claims.  The new guidelines represent an important first step on the journey towards fairer and more consistent outcomes and we look forward to their speedy implementation.”