Ar an 6 Márta thug Comhairle na mBreithiúna tacaíocht do na treoirlínte úra atá le leibhéil na ndámhachtainí i gcásanna díobhálacha pearsanta a ísliú. Beidh éifeacht aige seo ar chomhlachtaí árachais agus beidh ísliú i ndán maidir le costais éilimh. Tá sé tábhachtach go bhfuil buntáiste anseo do chustaiméirí. Lé rófhada tá na comhlachtaí árachais ag glacadh lámh ar chustaiméirí maidir le costais árachais agus caithfidh stad iomlán a theacht air seo anois. Caithfidh na treoirlínte úra seo costais árachais a ísliú do na custaiméirí.

The Judicial Council voted at the weekend to adopt new personal injury guidelines. This will see a reduction in personal injury awards, including for minor injuries. These new guidelines will replace the book of quantum, which sets general guidelines for awards in general injury claims. The Government approved these new guidelines on Tuesday. We welcome that and Sinn Féin supports these guidelines as we facilitated the passage of the Judicial Council Act in 2019.

We did so because we were told that would result in a reduction of the cost of insurance for hard-pressed consumers. These new guidelines reduce the cost of personal injury awards by more than 60% in some cases. Immediately after we heard the news that these new guidelines had been approved, representatives of the insurance industry went out spinning and spoofing. On the national airwaves, insurance industry representatives refused to commit to immediately reducing insurance prices despite these guidelines slashing the cost of claims. This stance was in complete contrast to previous claims from the insurance industry.

I will read into the record what industry representatives told the Joint Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach in 2019. In July that year, the CEO of Allianz told the committee that, "when we price insurance, and we are pricing insurance for the next 12 months, we have to set out our premium on the basis of what we expect to happen in terms of the number of claims over that 12-month period". The insurance companies therefore are not looking at past costs but at the future cost of claims. As a result of these new guidelines, those payouts have now been substantially reduced.

In fact, representatives from the industry went even further in telling us the levels of price reductions we should expect as a result of reduced personal injury awards. In October 2019, the CEO of Zurich Ireland told the committee that if soft tissue personal injury awards were to fall by 50%, then reductions of up to 15% in the cost of motor insurance would be expected. Regarding public liability insurance affecting businesses, he stated that we should expect reductions of 20%. Indeed, he said that the committee should ask serious and hard questions of the insurance industry if that did not happen. We know these guidelines go beyond the 50% reduction that he had suggested. Motorists should be experiencing real reductions in premiums today, tomorrow, next week and next month. It should also include business renewals. That is what was said straight from the horse's mouth when the industry wanted us to pass the legislation and wanted the Judiciary to cut the awards.

We have passed the legislation and the Judiciary has cut the awards but the industry is trying to wriggle out of the commitments it has made. The insurance industry will see the expected cost of claims significantly reduced. From today, the money those companies will have to pay out on awards will be significantly reduced from what was previously the case. Therefore, we should see an immediate reduction in the premiums being charged from this point onwards. This is the road we have gone down. The industry has nowhere left to hide and insurance companies must commit to immediate reductions in insurance premiums for motorists and for businesses.

Does the Tánaiste believe that the new guidelines should result in immediate reductions in insurance costs for consumers? What role will the Government play in ensuring that these cost savings for the insurance industry will be passed on to consumers in the form of lower insurance premiums? Did the Tánaiste or anybody in the Government get commitments from any of the insurance industry companies that there would be an immediate reduction in insurance premiums, as there should be?

I thank the Deputy for again raising this important matter of insurance. The Government is pursuing its action plan on insurance reform. The objective of that action plan is to make insurance more available for people and businesses and to reduce the cost of premiums charged to people and businesses for motor insurance, home insurance, public liability insurance, employers liability insurance and indeed all forms of insurance. A major part of the Government's action plan on insurance reform was to replace the old book of quantum with these new personal injury guidelines. I am glad the Judicial Council has now issued these new guidelines, which does result in a reduction in payouts that people will receive. The reductions will vary depending on how those are measured, but on average it will probably be something like 50%. That is significant.

This is of course only one part of a wider range of reforms and we have always said that there is no single reform which on its own will reduce insurance costs to the extent that we want them to. If one were to look at the pie chart of insurance costs, however, the biggest part of that would be the payouts paid to people who have been injured. Other things such as legal costs and the costs to the insurance companies in respect of their profits and reinsurance are all in and around 10%, whereas the payouts account for 40% to 50% of the cost of insurance. We therefore expect and anticipate that reducing payouts should result in a reduction in the cost of premiums for people.

It is important, however, that we are honest with people. The Deputy already knows, but he will not want to admit, that the new guidelines do not take effect immediately. They do not apply to claims which have already been assessed by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB. The guidelines also do not apply to cases which are already before the courts. No Government can change the rules or guidelines retrospectively. We can only change them for new claims or at least for claims which have not yet been assessed. That is the plan. We must pass legislation to bring these new personal injury guidelines into force and we will do that as soon as possible. The Minister for Justice, Deputy McEntee, has approval to do that by legislation within weeks and I hope we will have the full co-operation of the Opposition in enacting it.

Even then, however, it will not apply to cases already before the courts or which have already been assessed by PIAB. The legislation will only apply to cases which have not yet been assessed. As a result, and there is no getting around this aspect, there will be a time lag between the present and the time when we will see premiums coming down. It is simply not honest to suggest that the reduction announced at the weekend can suddenly result in premiums being reduced next week. The changes have to become law first and that law cannot apply to claims which have already been assessed. That would be changing the law retrospectively, which as the Deputy knows is unconstitutional.

I do believe, however, that this development will result in the costs of premiums coming down, but there will be a time lag between now and when that happens. I anticipate and I will be looking out for renewals in the months to come and over the year to see whether costs have come down. We will be holding the insurance industry to account on that issue. I have met representatives of the insurance industry, as has the Minister of State, Deputy Fleming. We will be meeting them regularly. The Minister of State is going to meet the CEOs of the insurance companies individually and we will be impressing on them our expectation that as awards do start falling that premiums should fall as well. We are seeking individual commitments from each of the insurance companies that they will do that.

With respect, the Tánaiste obviously does not know how insurance works because he just gave the line of the insurance industry when he said that there will be a lag period and that reductions will happen but will take a while to work through. I quoted for the Tánaiste what the representatives of the insurance industry had told us. Let me quote those words again. The representatives said that, "when we price insurance, and we are pricing insurance for the next 12 months, we have to set out our premium on the basis of what we expect to happen in terms of the number of claims over that 12-month period." The reality is that over the next 12 months, the cost of awards will be coming down. The announcement at the weekend will be given legal effect within two weeks.

The amounts paid out by insurance companies in awards will be reduced and therefore the premiums which people will enter into today, next week and next month should reflect those reductions. It is really important for the Government to understand that aspect and to ensure that the insurance industry is passing those reductions on straight away. When the representatives of the insurance industry wanted this legislation passed, which this House did, they told us that if we are not seeing reductions of 15% in motor insurance and 20% in public liability insurance then the politicians in this House should be asking those representative serious questions. The reality is that the awards are being cut straight away, because anything which is already assessed by PIAB has had a premium charged for it by the insurance companies. The insurance companies have counted that cost in previous premiums. Will the Tánaiste support the call for immediate reductions-----

Deputy Doherty's time is up. I call the Tánaiste.

I do not speak for the insurance industry. Perhaps Deputy Doherty does. He is very keen to quote the representatives of that industry on any occasion. I do not speak for the insurance industry. Perhaps the Deputy does, but I do not.

The personal injury guidelines were announced at the weekend. I do not know if the Deputy's contention that they will become law in two weeks is true. We must enact legislation in this House first, then we need it to go through the Seanad and then it needs to be signed by the President. The resulting law will also not apply to claims which have already been assessed. Therefore awards will be made in a week, in a month and in two months which will not fall under these new guidelines. There will be a lag period. I want to ensure that period is as short as possible.

We will be putting pressure on the industry, holding it to account, holding its feet to the fire and seeking from it commitments that premiums will decrease as awards decrease, but the awards have not yet decreased.