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THE GOVERNMENT IS two-thirds of the way there when it comes the action it needs to take to bring down the cost of insurance, according to Minister of State at the Department of Finance Michael D’Arcy.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, the minister defended progress made by the government to date in making necessary reforms in insurance but admitted that progress has been slower in some areas than expected.
His comments to us came before a tumultuous few weeks for the government over insurance, with Minister for Children Katherine Zappone announcing a one-off payment of €1,500 for creches struggling to meet the cost of insurance.
Also this month, a Central Bank report revealed that motor insurance in Ireland has risen by 42% in the last decade despite a 2.5% reduction in the average cost of individual claims over the same period.
Despite this, one of those key areas of reform when it comes to insurance is lowering the injury payouts issued in insurance claims, according to the minister.
Highlighting a specific area of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board’s Book of Quantum – which gives an approximate level of damages for injuries – D’Arcy said that being awarded €19,000 for a sprained finger was a “ridiculous figure”.
He also said that another area that must be tackled is the “easy-money mindset” from insurance.
For every fraudulent claim, there are “dozens and dozens of exaggerated claims” that are driving premiums up, the minister suggested.
D’Arcy also said his own car insurance premium has fallen in the past year, and said he has heard anecdotally that others have had theirs fall too.
Progress to date
By the time Fine Gael formed a government again in 2016, it was clear that the cost of insurance had spiralled to such an extent that action must be taken.
After bottoming out in early 2008, motor insurance prices began a steady climb which eventually saw premiums doubling by mid-2016, according to official CSO stats.
There are no official statistics on other areas of insurance, such as public liability for businesses, but business groups and bodies have said for years that insurance has become far too high.
Another example that hit the headlines recently was that of Galway Community Circus, who said last month they had been hit with an almost €20,000 increase to their premium in the last few years. In August, a leisure centre and swimming pool in Kildare said it was forced to shut down due to an insurance quote that was four times what it had been paying previously.
In May, an outdoor adventure centre in Dublin was forced to remove some of its equipment after an insurance hike. Adventure centres in Meath faced closure over “ridiculous hikes”.
The Cost of Insurance Working Group was set up by the government in 2016 to come up with a plan to tackle these high costs. Their first report in January 2017 came with 71 suggested actions that could help to do this.
Fast forward almost three years and, while many feel that not enough has been done and people still face unacceptably high premiums, the minister who has responsibility for insurance thinks that significant progress has been made.
D’Arcy told TheJournal.ie: “I suppose we’re two thirds of the way there. The biggest issue we have are the levels of awards.
I know everyone wants to talk about fraud, and the really dodgy fraudulent claims where people stage an accident. But for every one of those we have dozens and dozens of exaggerated claims where people have been impacted through no fault of their own and they have exaggerated their claim.
The minister was clear what he believes the biggest problem is in terms of high awards, and insurance companies have consistently pointed to the high number of awards decided by courts as a key contributor to insurance premiums.
However, a recent investigation by TheJournal.ie‘s investigative platform Noteworthy found that the total awards for personal injury cases and the average award fell significantly between 2014 and 2018 while premiums were rising at the same time.
Similarly, that significant report by the Central Bank earlier this month revealed that the cost of car insurance has risen 42% in the last decade, despite an overall reduction in the number of claims. Micheál Martin told the Dáil that a “greedy” insurance industry had “spun a false narrative to maximise profits”.
In meetings with Minister D’Arcy, the legal profession refuted claims that it had played a role in rising premiums by bringing spurious claims forward. According to a note made of a meeting between the minister and the Law Society in April, the latter’s “main issue today was that it believed that the focus of reform should be on insurance premiums and not on the level of damages paid”.
Businesses then bear the brunt as they face higher premiums even though they may not have even had a claim made against him. As the specific examples above highlight, that climate has been made much harder with the departure of insurers particularly in the leisure and now childcare industries.
The minister has continued to liaise with the insurance industry, the legal industry, businesses and the gardaí as he tries to ensure premiums come down.
He said that he has to try “bring them all along” with him in the reforms.
“So you know, I might get annoyed one day with insurance companies,” he said. “Other days, I get annoyed with lawyers or I might get annoyed with judges but in the main I just have to plough on and make sure we have a good sector.”
‘Nobody said stop’
D’Arcy said that reforms have been brought in in a number of areas, but he firmly believes that payouts need to come down before premiums can in a way that benefits a large number of individuals and businesses.
“My role is there to try to protect the sector so that if somebody is injured in a claim, or in an accident and there’s a damage against them to no fault of their own and it’s serious – I want to make sure we have a properly functioning sector, so that person is correctly compensated,” he said.
I don’t want to see people getting a large amount of money for a very small injury. I want that to end.
He said that in cases when someone has a legitimate injury, the level of award is often disproportionate.
D’Arcy said it’s “ridiculous” that someone could get €19,000 for a sprained finger.
“If we get those types of awards down, we deal with the whiplash issue, and the soft tissue issue, I think we will have a much better, stronger, structure,” he said.
The latest step towards that is the creation of the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee of the Judicial Council. Made up of seven judges who were appointed last month, it will compile a report and publish new guidelines on payouts in such cases.
Before this, it was at the court’s discretion on how much to award depending on the cases that came before it. This approach aims at delivering new guidelines underpinned by legislation and senior judges.
The minister spoke positively about the potential for this council to provide the guidelines that will help reduce payouts in the future.
D’Arcy admitted that this wasn’t set up as quickly as he’d have liked, and faced a rebuke from Chief Justice Frank Clarke in a statement last month who said there “could be no basis in fact” for suggestions the work of this committee would see payouts drop by more than 15-20%.
“We’re all here to help in terms of what’s to be done,” the minister said. “But the challenge and the chief justice did highlight this challenge is that there is potential there if somebody wants to challenge it legally.”
And if that doesn’t achieve its goal of reducing payouts and ultimately premiums, Taoiseach Leo Varadkar has said the possibility exists for a referendum to be held on capping insurance payouts. “We should not rule out a referendum down the line if the existing reforms that are planned do not work,” he told the Dáil in October.
D’Arcy admitted that it’s not a direction he wants to go in and described it as a matter of “last resort”.
But how did it get this bad in the first place?
The minister said: “I have no idea. I’m not being glib on this point. But nobody said stop.
So we’re going to do all this work to try and improve the sector. But it does evolve pretty rapidly… There will always be people who will want to try and get easy money out of insurance. I have to say ‘stop’. And I want to eradicate the easy money mindset from insurance.
Before the government gets to that point, however, hundreds more companies and organisations will be put at risk in the face of higher premiums. They need premiums – as well as payouts – to come down sooner rather than later.
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The fact that it says it comes from Anti-Corruption Ireland tells you all you need to know. A bunch of misfits banded together by a shared delusion under the guidance of some extremely nasty pieces of work. Excellent for the fireplace on these cold evenings.
@OnlyHereForTheComments: Admit that the leaflet omitted one of the most sophisticated conspiracies ever: SLICED BREAD! As we now know – metal blades are used to cut the bread. The special blades leave tiny metal particles on each slice you ingest. Those particles then circulate in your bloodstream and settle eventually in your brain causing corrosion. Corroded brains are frankly easier to be subverted. If you eat a lot of sliced bread or sliced buns – like the ones in burgers you may turn ginger. In extreme cases your skin may show orange tinge…Mental effects can manifest (but are not limited to) as urge to inject bleach, or insert UV light source inside your body. You may also be more prone to adultery and violence but touting family values and protection of life (especially life if somebody else’s womb). Weird ha? Believe it or not – but NGO,WHO,BMW,KFC,FBI,deep state and Johnny Depp are all in it.
@OnlyHereForTheComments:
Who pays for these to be printed? where’s that money coming from?
The best article I’ve seen on The Journal in a while. Well done Nicky Ryan, you clearly put a lot of effort into this and it paid off. Informative, factual and debunking the ridiculous information thats been circulated. Great job, I’m very impressed
@Robert Edwards: even122 of his buddies think so too
@Robert Edwards: Agreed Robert !! Fantastic and so necessary journalism
104% of people who say Covid is a conspiracy are aliens. Fact!
@Dave Gibney: prove it’s not
@Michael Maher: It’s up to you to prove that it is.
Humans can’t keep secrets, don’t give them so much credit.
@Michael Maher: I spoke to the aliens and they told me in no uncertain terms that it wasn’t them. This was backed up by their lizard people friends. They even took off their skin suits to tell me.
@Conall: can I sign up for your newsletter ?
I just want to cry. Because of these nut jobs, it’s impossible to have a proper debate about how to live with Covid and the fact that debate is so limited allows this nonsense to profligate. There are legitimate questions re how cases are counted, for example. They are counted according to WHO guidelines. WHO guidelines are important for the monitoring of the extent of the virus, but not its impact. They’re important for the study of epidemiology, but not necessarily for public health reasons. But we can’t have debates because of the likes of those people.
@Anne Marie Devlin: if we can’t have a debate, it’s not the fault of these individuals, it’s the fault of media and government for creating a situation where debate is impossible. Not all the experts agree with NEPHET and many are in complete opposition to the current plan. Only problem is that mainstream media has made debate on this issue very difficult.
@Adam Conroy: Actually it is the fault of the individual that can’t properly debate. Stop blaming everything and everyone else for your ignorance
@Adam Conroy: The people who published this leaflet have made a number of statements. The author of this article has rebutted these statements with facts, showing them to be mostly incorrect. Sounds a bit Iike a debate to me.
@Anne Marie Devlin: exactly Anne Marie
@Kavsie: you are correct in your statement, however in March, the view concerning masks was that they would NOT prevent the person wearing it from contracting the virus and that particular piece of advice has NOT changed. The difference now is that they realised that it could prevent someone already infected from transmitting the virus, and since the virus has an incubation period of up to a couple weeks before symptoms show, if ever, it is safer for everyone to wear some form of face covering rather than unknowingly spread it.
@Anne Marie Devlin: Sure I debated your assumptions re “There are legitimate concerns re how cases are counted”& you didn’t answer me!
Also re your assumption re “They’re important for the study of epidemiology but not necessarily for public health reasons”,I gave he definition of epidemiology.Epidemiology is the foundation of public health & epidemiology and public health are studied together in Universities.
Public health is ‘often defined as the organised efforts of society to prevent disease and to promote health’
@Anne Marie Devlin:
you’re just twisting things there – trying to imply that our lack of objectivity in the media is caused by these people who released the pamphlet. In fact it is the EXACT opposite.
This type of pamphlet is being released because there is no objectivity left in the media. And yes, the pamphlet goes to the other extreme I agree.. and thats the unfortunate reality when you lose that objectivity.
Question : take Luke O Neill etc. When did you ever see him challenged on TV/Radio by one of his peers with a counter-viewpoint. The answer is simply NEVER. He talks alone, un-challenged. Almost nightly !! And that type of thing is the root cause of your problem. You say you want to see things discussed openly. Well take that up with the media, not with whoever released the pamphlet. Its easier to blame them, because it means youre still part of the groupthink, but youre zoning in on the wrong culprit this time.
@Domhnall O’Sullivan:
There are doctors, medics, thousands of them worldwide who think the reaction to this virus is dis-proportiante and mis-placed. They don’t align with 90% of what is written in the pamphlet but they still disagree with the measures being taken.
when you lose the objectivity, all of these people get lumped into the one pot. the “against” pot – but theyre viewpoints are very varied and different. that pamphlet is the full on extreme side of it..
How many of you actually know someone who had or has Covid?
@Teresa Ryan: your point Being?
@Teresa Ryan: I personally know three families that got it, none of whom are connected. What’s your point?
@Teresa Ryan: know around five only one made hospital and was quite ill but recovered.
@Teresa Ryan: I know a nurse in James’s. Frightened the sh*#e out of her when she got it. She was severely affected by it.
A neighbors 17 year old grandson also had it. He couldn’t train for 2 months as his fitness was wiped out
@Teresa Ryan: I know this guy off the TV… I think his name is Donald.
@Teresa Ryan: I don’t know anyone from Argentina, therefore it mustn’t exist!
@Paul Furey: It’s not a difficult question. How many people do you know who had of has Covid?
@ruairi: Not the question I asked though.
@Joe Bloggs: You are one of the few who actually knows someone. That’s my point.
@Teresa Ryan: that’s not a point.
@Teresa Ryan: Donald Trump?
@Teresa Ryan: I’ll answer you clearly Teresa, I know 2 people that had COVID, one died back in April from it and the other had very minor symptoms and none of his family contracted it.
How many do you know?
@Teresa Ryan: I know 8 people between here and the UK.
One was hospitalised for a couple of days, but is now fine.
3 were in bed for days and said it was horrible. 2 said it was like a bad cold, but with loss of sense of smell and taste and
2 hardly noticed they had it at all.
But 4 of the above weeks later still are out of breath walking up stairs etc.
I also know my mam has friends that have had it. My neighbour told me 5 people in her workplace had it.
I’m amazed you don’t know anyone who has had it.
@Teresa Ryan: I know 3 lads that had it. Want thier names? They can tell you how rough they felt.
@Teresa Ryan: two who recovered and one who died.
@Teresa Ryan: If you can’t see the correlation Teresa, you exhibit your inability to see how silly your question was in the first place. BTW, I’ve had two neighbours die from it. My cousin had it. Two people I work with are off currently with covid. So yeah, to answer your question; it does exist and it’s not made up.
@Teresa Ryan: I personally know someone who died of it.
@Teresa Ryan: Ruairi’s point was absolutely spot on and a perfect reply to you . . .but it was lost on you.
@Teresa Ryan: One person in my family, a friend of ours and my parents neighbours just got over it.
The morans that post these flyers and march really madden me! Do they not get it, if the hospital get overwhelmed by this virus it has a knock on affect on every aspect of health and the economy. These honestly have too much time, self importance and not enough brainscell to understand that they need to cop on to them self! We are all trying act in solidarity and dont need to listen to this nonsense by people who are too thick to find themself a productive hobby for themselves!
@Claire Joyce: Very good comment,Clare.Re your second sentence,I’ve tried to highlight that for months now but you’ve put it better!
Some who constantly criticize the public health advice and guidelines often talk about people waiting for hospital appointments, procedures and about jobs, businesses and the economy but fail to realise that the very basic public health advice and guidelines thry are critical of are the key to substantially reducing transmission of the virus, therefore more& more patients can be seen, businesses can remain open thereby protecting jobs,etc.
@Nuala Mc Namara: i am one of those who criticize the public health advice, there is a big difference between the likes of me who think that hospital procedures and consultations should have kept going under tight health restrictions and the likes of these people who are basically saying the whole thing is a pack of lies. You have been very vocal on here with you3 respect for the government and thats your opinion which is fine, respect those who may not agree with everything that’s issued as it doesn’t mean we have the same views as these.
@Madethyme: You obviously haven’t seen my other comments re Government!
More patients are been seen since initial lockdown and more could be seen if people try their best to follow the public health advice and guidelines.
We don’t know the full fact yet. There is no proper evidence. There is propaganda on both sides.
@Dolphins: Yes, the truth is always nestled somewhere in the middle.
@Dolphins: yeah apart from the facts we already know…
@Dolphins: Ah I see you skipped the article and jump straight to the comments. Try reading it for facts and evidence. Then read again because it prop take you a few attempts to understand. This method is called learning. You should try it all the time in life.
They got one part right staying indoors most definitely does weaken your physical health, your not gonna get proper exercise sitting on your sofa, and it’s good for your mental health to get out and about.
@SB: and if we follow the guidelines, no one needs to stay indoors…but if these nut jobs continue spreading the misinformation that they do, some will believe them, and end up spreading this damned virus, and we will end up back where we were….indoors in a lock down. One point right out on a page of wrong ones does not justify their actions
@SB: The ironic thing is that the people complaining that we were “only” allowed exercise for one hour during the last lockdown are probably looking at 4chan in their parents’ basements all day.
This would be hilarious if it weren’t for the vulnerable people few who will believe it
Covid Facts by ACI. 60% of the time, it works every time.
There’s no way I’m reading all that.
The media loves this type of stuff because it discredits alternative views.
The rational argument is that Sweden has not had a massive amounts of deaths with no lockdown. And that we would predict in the region of 5000 based on their outcome. So we should be having a debate about what is a lesser evil, 5000 dead from covid or mass societal damage from lock down.
Why are they posting from Gemma and not from the experts who spoke about a controlled spread last week
@Niall Dunne: The Swedes claim they had a lockdown, just that it was “lighter” than others. In any case, in spite of their “light” lockdown, they had 6 times the number of deaths as Germany and Denmark, nine times the Finnish death toll and eleven times the Norwegian toll. If Sweden had done as well as the neighbouring countries, who jumped on the virus early and hard, about five thousand Swedes could still be alive.
The second wave is not causing nearly as many deaths so far in any European country – and won’t if we have the common sense to abide by the guidelines – because the vulnerable are being careful and because treatment is better, but that’s too late for 5,000 Swedes. And imho, 5,000 is a massive amount of dead people.
@Niall Dunne: Oh Sweden again…this utopian myth has been totally debunked – even they admitted there were mistakes made. They now have common sense rules similar to ours and their numbers are going up again so the whole herd immunity argument is shot.
Anyone who believes nonsense from the anti corruption group who promote this conspiracy theorists stuff need to have reality check on there life and the direction its going
Thank you for addressing this dangerous far right disinformation. Sadly it’s becoming all too common in Ireland.
Saw that leaflet mentioning 5G and anti-vaccine conspiracies, that’s all you need to see before throwing it in the recycle-bin.
@Dave O’Shaughnessy: please don’t recycle it. It’s toxic material and should be disposed of accordingly
@Anne Marie Devlin: I may not agree with everything you say, but that one brought a smile to my face. Thanks.
@Dave O’Shaughnessy: Your children and future generations will not thank you.
Thank you. It’s about time someone took the loons on head on. the traction they have been getting on social media is worrying. I think people’s ability to think for themselves is being affected by their frustration with the necessary restrictions. It leaves people open to manipulation by the far right as it easier to dismiss the need for restrictions if you can dismiss the virus as over hyped or a hoax etc again thanks for the good work on debunking their crap all in one place.
I love your use of the word “nonsense”. The tinfoil hat brigade in full flow. They are off their rockers but the sad thing is people believe their nonsense.
@Fi Harte: Amazing that some new commenters on here since February who have put forwards some of these ideas are not commenting on this article!
Anyone read all of that?
@Gary Mc Aree: maybe that’s what it is with me so Gary, my lungs working harder, I find it hard to breathe when my mask goes on it the morning, I find myself taking huge breaths as if trying to get more oxygen, I asked the doctor I work with why and he said it’s lack of oxygen, nothing that’s going to kill me but that’s what it is
@Lucille Ball: sounds more like emphysema to me babe
Thank you for your fact checking. But of cource the Germans are just as full of world order theories as well as the Irish. These leaflets etc. appear to be well organised. What is the point behind it all?
@Eamonn Ferry: Leaflets like these appear well organised because these days, even stupid people have access to desktop publishing, the internet, etc. Centuries ago, they could only have talked nonsense to their immediate community, but now they can see each others’ nonsense online and their fist thought is “hey, that person agrees with me – we must both be right!”, when in fact they’re both talking nonsense. Add in manipulative people leaving nonsense for them to find, and we have today’s situation.
Excellent rebuttal to dangerous nonsense
this pamphlet is full of BS.
bring back media objectivity. discuss the important issues openly. are the measures necessary? Is the test for cases way too sensitive? was immunity even partially built during the summer – how could it be built more?
Let the medics/experts who disagree with the narrative debate these things openly and then pamphlets like this will disappear or become so marginalised they wont matter..
This was a great laugh to read! It’s these type of conspiracy theories that have these nit wit anti maskers out on the streets protesting!
@Edel Quinn: You wont be laughing for long after you get your vaccination The question is will you do some real research or just go with the Journal’s spin. You really should.
Thanks for this article. Can you put it in a nice leaflet and send it out now please?
A little behind the curve with this article. There’s been various forms of this same leaflet doing the rounds for a few months. Unfortunately some people are starting to believe this nonsense because they’re disillusioned with what has happened.
If some of these lies had been debunked publicly earlier they might not have gotten any traction but sadly more and more people are getting swayed in their thinking.
have your say