Action Plan for Insurance Reform: Statements Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13 ============================================================ Aubrey McCarthy (IND), University of Dublin I thank the Minister of State for being here. As my colleague just noted, the issue we are addressing is very serious and very topical. Public confidence is being eroded in the essential service that is the insurance industry. This is especially so when we focus on the likes of motor insurance. It is an issue that affects all of us, including young people, essential service providers, etc. Time and again, I see motor insurance premiums increasing while claims are reducing and accident rates have fallen. Road safety has improved across the board. Vehicles are safer, technology is better and public awareness is higher than ever. Yet, despite all that progress, premiums and excesses continue to rise. That seems to be a contradiction. Many of us are asking the simple question of why we are paying more when the risk is going down. I see this in my own business. Senator Casey pointed out that for SME owners, the temptation is often there to underwrite oneself, but then one thinks about the act of God clause whereby one could lose everything. I know people who have taken the risk of underwriting themselves and they are saving money at this moment in time. The truth about the current system - again, with particular reference to motor insurance - is that it lacks transparency on both pricing and payouts. Customers do not know how their premiums are calculated but they do know that one driver might be paying €700 while another pays €2,000. They do not know why a reduction in claims does not translate into a reduction in the cost of premiums. One of my colleagues detailed in the House a couple of weeks ago how when she went to renew her insurance, the price given online was €400. She did not sign up for it that day and when she went back the following day, the cost given was €800. There is no transparency in how premiums are calculated. Insurers are not required to show us how it all works. That is not how a fair market should operate. What is in operation is a closed system. The public is carrying the burden while the whole rationale behind pricing remains hidden. The group most affected by this, and mostly ignored, are young drivers. We see young people coming through the services at Tiglin whom we are helping into housing and education. When we try to help them to get on the road, they find they are facing premiums of anywhere between €3,000 and €5,000 even when driving older, low-powered vehicles. This affects students, apprentices and people entering the workplace. They are people who are trying to build their future. We are telling them to get jobs and to contribute, yet before they even start, they face an insurance bill that makes up a large proportion of their annual income. I understand there is a Cabinet sub-group on insurance reform but I am not sure whether it is ticking all the boxes. This is not just an economic issue. It is costing society in a huge way. I have spoken to parents who feel ashamed that they cannot help their children to afford a car. Often, the car itself is the cheapest thing to buy; the insurance is where the problem starts. I have also spoken to a lot of rural families who feel abandoned because, without a car, they are cut off from employment, education and often healthcare as well. For many people in rural areas, a car is not optional. Not everybody lives beside a bus route or has access to a rail link. People in rural Ireland cannot just be told to take public transport. We need mandatory transparency regarding how insurance is priced, and insurers must publish that data. It must include how premiums are set, how risk is assessed and how a reduction in claims translates into pricing. Without that transparency, we do not have accountability. We also need fair treatment, as I mentioned, for young drivers. That means ending blanket risk categorisation. We used to have that for women drivers, who were offered premiums at half the cost of those for male drivers. There was a whole issue there around gender equality. We must reward safe behaviour and ensure premiums reflect actual driving records. We also need stronger regulatory oversight. The State must have the power to challenge unjustified increases, demand data and intervene when the market fails consumers. At the enterprise committee, I have often raised with the heads of the insurance industry how insurance costs are spiralling. My colleague Senator Nelson Murray has done the same. We were told there is a sub-group on insurance reform and any issues should be brought to it. We need the Government to do more on insurance reform. People deserve a system that protects them, not one that penalises certain cohorts. --- Source: Houses of the Oireachtas. Licensed under CC BY 4.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The Official Report is revised after first publication; the fetch timestamp below identifies the version quoted. Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/seanad/2026-05-13/debate/main Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:56+00:00 Sitting date: 2026-05-13