The new personal injuries guidelines have been in effect now for over a month. Sinn Féin supported the Judicial Council Act and these new guidelines for one simple reason, which is that they would bring greater certainty to the level of personal injury awards, reducing the cost of claims, and by doing so should reduce the cost of insurance for customers.

This is only going to happen if insurance companies pass on in full the savings to their customers. As the Tánaiste has said himself, these new guidelines will reduce the level of awards for soft tissue injuries by an average of 50%. In some cases, the cut in the level of awards is as much as 69%. Put simply, these guidelines will provide significant savings for the insurance industry that must be passed on to their customers in full.

In 2019 the insurance industry made cast-iron guarantees to the Committee on Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform, and Taoiseach that it would reduce premiums if personal injury awards reduced in this way. It told this committee that it would reduce motor insurance premiums by 15% and business insurance by 20%. That is straight from the industry’s mouth. The new personal injury guidelines have provided for just that. We now need to see insurance prices fall and to fall now.

The question that we need to ask ourselves is whether we can trust the insurance industry to deliver on its promises in full. The answer to that question should be a clear “No”. The industry cannot and should not be trusted to deliver on its own.

In September, the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, CCPC, found after a four-year investigation that five insurance companies, the biggest players in the Irish industry, engaged in anti-competitive cartel-like behaviour and price-fixing over a 20-month period from 2015 to 2016 that led to higher prices for consumers. Indeed, during this period we saw all insurance premiums increase by 21% year on year.

Yesterday, at a meeting of the finance committee, two of these insurance companies rejected these findings, showing contempt for the commission and for their customers. That is the industry that we are dealing with and it should not be trusted at face value. This Dáil cannot provide it with huge savings and then cross our fingers and hope that these savings will be passed on in full to their customers.

At present, that is exactly what we are doing with the new personal injury guidelines. The industry can and should be held to account to ensure that it passes on the savings in full to the customers. That is exactly what is happening in Britain. When the level of awards was reduced there, legislation was passed to ensure that the industry passed on these savings, pound for pound, to their customers.

Many of the big beasts of the Irish insurance industry, such as AXA, Aviva, AIG, Allianz, Zurich and RSA, also operate in Britain and are the big beasts of the insurance market there and are subject to these requirements. The insurance industry here should be subject to the exact same level of scrutiny.

I argue very strongly, therefore, that we need the same type of oversight here. We need to ensure that pound for pound, euro for euro, the savings that will be made by the industry as a result of the dramatic cuts in all awards are passed on to their customers and passed on now. Will the Tánaiste agree that similar oversights and regulations should be brought in here in order that the insurance industry is required to submit information to the Central Bank each year to show the savings that have been made as a result of these guidelines and how those savings have been passed on to their customers?

In my view this will not only hold the industry to account but it will apply pressure on insurance companies to do the right thing right now, which is to cut insurance premiums. By doing so and by introducing this oversight, they will have had nowhere left to hide.

I thank the Deputy. I will start by recognising the Deputy’s work down the years in highlighting this issue, which has been very helpful to us in government in enabling us to act on this issue. The proposal that the Deputy makes is worthy of consideration and would be a matter for the Minister for Finance rather than for me but if the Deputy would like to share it with us or produce a paper or document on it, if he has not done so already, we would be happy to give it consideration. On the face of it, it sounds like a sensible proposal but I would have to see the detail before I could say so for sure.

On the wider issue, the Government has embarked on a major reform of the insurance sector in Ireland that has been led by me as Tánaiste and Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment. I head a ministerial committee, which is now implementing the action plan for insurance reform and it is one of those occasions when we are probably ahead of schedule in implementing the major recommendations.

The biggest reform was of the personal injuries guidelines, which has been done and I recognise the Minister, Deputy McEntee’s work in that regard. That has reduced awards and as awards have been reduced, we now expect that premiums should also be reduced. That is logical and it is also the commitment that the industry has made. The Criminal Justice (Perjury and Related Offences) Bill has now been put in place. That legislation will tackle false and exaggerated claims.

We have reforms under way to the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, PIAB, led by the Minister of State, Deputy Troy. We will make changes to the duty of care legislation and we are also making reforms to the CCPC to improve its powers as to competition. All of these reforms are going to make a difference and not just the personal injury guidelines reform.

I have to be very clear that the reason we made these reforms and changes was so that insurance would become more available and affordable for motorists, homeowners and businesses. As these reforms are now happening and being realised we expect the insurance industry to do what it is supposed to do and said it would do, which is to reduce premiums for motor and home insurance and for employer liability, EL, and public liability, PL, for businesses. The Minister of State, Deputy Fleming, is going to individually meet all of the CEOs of the insurance companies and he is already doing that to impress this on them and if we can use the regulatory function of the Central Bank to monitor this, press them further and hold them to account on this, then I believe the Deputy's proposal is a very good suggestion.

I thank the Tánaiste for his response. We have done more than just produce a paper on this but have produced legislation. I look forward to the Tánaiste's views on this and we will have an opportunity to discuss and debate this on Second Stage shortly.

The key thing for me is if this sort of oversight is brought in, it says very clearly to the insurance industry that it has to show clearly that every single euro that has been saved as a result of reduced awards has been passed on to the customers. Over the past seven days, I have quizzed and grilled five of the major insurance companies in the finance committee. Some of them have suggested that these personal injury guidelines, which only took effect last month, have been factored into premium reductions as far back as five and six months ago, which is absolute nonsense. That is why we need a mechanism for all of these companies. The six largest companies in Ireland are also the six largest companies in Britain and they abide by this regulation, which the UK Parliament passed into law, which forces the industry to show that it has passed on these savings euro for euro. I would welcome this type of commitment because as I have said previously, this is an industry that we cannot take at face value and we have a duty here to ensure that the laws that we pass are having the desired effect, which is that the customers are benefiting and not the companies.

I thank the Deputy and he will acknowledge that in the past, the Government has accepted legislation from him on the insurance issue and we will be willing to do so again and to work with him on this and give his proposal full consideration. As I did not hear what the insurers said at the committee, I do not want to comment directly on what I did not hear them say but if they said that they had already factored in the personal injury guidelines into their premiums, I would find that hard to believe. How would they have known what figures the Judicial Council had come up with?

I was not aware of the figures until I saw them, so I cannot imagine how they would have been aware of them either. My expectation is that now that the personal injury guidelines are in place, the provisions they have to make should be lower and, therefore, premiums should fall over the next couple of months or at least as people get their renewals. I have heard some anecdotal evidence of that happening but have not seen any proof of it as yet. As already stated, the message is clear from the Government. We brought about this reform to reduce the cost of insurance and make it more available, and we expect the insurance companies now to deliver. We are open to any proposals that will help us monitor them and hold them to account so that it happens.