On 18 July, Insurance Ireland submitted a detailed pre-budget submission to the Minister for Finance with proposals under five key policy headings for consideration in Budget 2026.

1. INSURANCE REFORM:
   1. Reform frequency and process for reviewing personal injury claims award guidelines – Ongoing strict, clear and transparent means to review level of Irish awards, including robust benchmarking exercise of UK and European award levels
   2. Introduce meaningful control over legal costs – Act swiftly on the Programme for Government commitment to develop new guidelines to set clear rates and scales of fees for all forms of civil litigation

2. LIFE AND PENSIONS REFORM
   1. Equalising taxation treatment of financial products with similar objectives – stimulate long-term savings and investments and encourage participation in retail markets by equalising Life Assurance Exit Tax, Capital Gains Tax and Deposit Interest Retention Tax and removing penalising 1% Life Assurance Levy
   2. Pragmatic approach to legislating for access to mortgage protection insurance for cancer survivors – work with life insurers to legislate for the of Code of Practice for Underwriting Mortgage Protection Insurance for Cancer Survivors
   3. Introduce an equivalent to United Kingdom, Sweden or Italy’s Individual Savings Account in Ireland – introduce of a voluntary Individual Savings Account product, similar to with a tax exemption on investment income and capital gains up to a value to be determined by Government
   4. Implement recommended changes to Standard Fund Threshold – make necessary changes to SFT regime as recommended in Dr de Buitléir report
   5. Clarity in rollout of Automatic Enrolment – ensure strong consumer protection for AE and a level-playing field between occupational pensions and AE

3. EU POLICY REFORM:
   1. Call on the European Commission to amend proposal on securitisation to allow participation of Irish (re)insurers – Review and engage at EU level to amend internal model and minimum size requirements in Commission proposal
   2. Tackle regulatory simplification and reduction of administrative burden – Identify ways to proportionally simplify and consolidate legislation, without inhibiting competitiveness or innovation, exploiting benefits of scale offered by Single Market

4. FINANCIAL LITERACY AND TALENT
   1. Financial Literacy – through regulatory and legislative changes reduce disclosures to pragmatic amount supporting different ways of explaining financial products
   2. Talent: Education and Workforce Development – address the challenge in recruiting and retaining talent by supporting Insurance Ireland’s Talent Roadmap

5. EFFECTIVE TAXATION MEASURES
   1. Participation Exemption for Foreign Branches – introduce participation exemption for branches allowing reduction in complexity, administrative burden and cost of doing business and continues to build on Ireland’s attractiveness as an international insurance hub
   2. Tax Relief at Source for Health Insurance – to maintain sustainability in the health insurance market, retain and review tax relief at source for private health insurance
   3. Removal of Benefit in Kind tax on corporate dental insurance – expand dental coverage for Irish workers and their families by eliminating Benefits-In-Kind tax on corporate-paid dental insurance benefits

Read the full submission here:

Insurance Ireland Pre-Budget Submission 2026