Action Plan for Insurance Reform: Statements
Seanad Éireann — 2026-05-13
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Alice-Mary Higgins (IND), National University of Ireland

I hear and share the frustration of many of those who have seen either the opportunism of insurance companies or the obstacles placed by insurance companies who do not want to insure us in a situation and sometimes the obfuscation by insurance companies as to reasons premiums are high. They constantly suggest this is solely to do with litigation, which I think does not stand up any more, clearly. There is frustration and it is felt by how hard it becomes just to do the things that make up our lives together: to have social events, to have community events, or to take part in sports or in voluntary or community activities. These the things that are a lot of the lifeblood of society. As well, there are those living in areas that have been impacted in the past by floods or storms, who fear that again and who also can find themselves completely cut out.
I sat on the finance committee and I acknowledge that Deputy Doherty drove a lot of debate on that and others who were very active on the finance committee, probably more active than me, on that particular issue. I worry that in approaching the insurance debate, too many of the insurance companies that are currently in place and dominate the Irish market have been able to set the agenda for what should happen next. They have continued to drive the agenda and what we have seen is almost their recipe for what should happen. That is why that, even still, so much in the action plan is focusing on the fact that the customer needs to be more literate. We see very literate customers who are facing obstacles that are within the industry. We also see the question of insulating insurance companies from the impact of claims and trying to do everything possible to stop people exercising their rights in courts and all of that. There are a whole set of things there and what the insurance companies have put out is their recipe.
What there really has not been enough of is an actual challenging of the model. Why that is really interesting and important is, we have a very successful history of a different model in Ireland. Even action point 11 on enhancing market competitiveness is all very focused about trying to get other international companies or very large international insurers to enter the Irish market and then that will enhance competitiveness. Of course, the problem is that some of those companies, especially in areas like climate and others, have exercised similar practices on an international scale. What are not in the mix, and should be under point 11, and is maybe hinted at under point 14 on the idea of innovative concepts, are mutuals. Mutual insurance companies were the predominant model for a long period of time in Ireland and they were very successful. There were mutuals in the farming industry; it was insurance by farmers for farmers. There were mutuals that were widened to have an impact on credit to society. There is still one mutual insurance company operating within Ireland. The thing about mutuals is that they have a different focus because the policyholders are who they serve and the policy owners own the mutual. They literally serve communities and are owned by communities. That is different when we see what happened with a lot of those mutuals who served Ireland very well in the seventies and eighties, when they entered the stock market and became an investment product. A goal of a lot of the insurance companies is to return money to shareholders and often to do so in the short term, the short-term dividend model, whereas within mutual insurance models, which are not a radical idea and were standard practice in Ireland and many other parts of the world, the goal ultimately is that we have each other's backs and how we keep each other and support each other. Also, the goal is long term. They are not looking to profit, necessarily, with a great shareholding so their stock market shares go up this year, if, in the five- and ten-year period, they are able to deliver.
I urge the Minister of State, especially when I see the Government putting so much support into de-risking what are effectively for-profit industries in these insurance companies, to think about what it would look like if the Government were instead to give support to mutual insurance companies and to their regrowth in a few key areas. It is something that could deliver. We have seen it in areas such as microfinance and others. In many cases the risks, when pooled, are actually quite small ones. It is something that needs to be looked at.
I urge the Minister of State to engage with that, or even follow up on it in terms of innovativeness, that is, not just looking at the tech product or the international actor but at the potential for the growth of the mutuals. Even within communities here in Dublin, there is exploration of mutual models. The seeds are there for people who literally cannot otherwise be insured but who want to keep their communities and businesses vibrant, alive and moving. A scheme that would allow those mutuals to start growing again would be really useful. Again, support is needed not just for external actors but for domestic and community-aligned vehicles too.
Regarding community adaptation supports in the climate area, I worry a little about the insurance industry solely setting the agenda in the areas of climate and flood prevention. Yes, people want to be able to access insurance. We know that some of these standards, like the one-in-100-year standard, are coming from insurance companies. Councils are scrambling to meet it. Sometimes it leads to short-term decisions. In order to get a building insured to a one-in-100-year standard, we have to invest in a particular protection. Maybe it is not the kind of thing that is going to serve the whole catchment area and contribute to our whole community being most climate resilient. Sometimes the measures that are asked for by insurance companies - cutting down trees and all of the rest - actually contribute to climate change, biodiversity loss and, indeed, flood risk. There is a worry where they set the agenda.
Probably one of the most chilling sessions I have ever been in was at one of the climate talks at the Conference of the Parties in Madrid. I accidentally wandered into the room while I was looking for a session on something else. I accidentally wandered into a session where big international insurance companies were presenting to mayors of towns who were very worried because their national governments were not taking the action needed in terms of tackling climate change. The mayors knew there was going to be disaster ahead. We think we are hit by it, but entire cities across the world are planning to relocate. The insurance companies were talking about what they were going to sell to local governments in terms of insurance, and they referred to 100,000 or 200,000 deductibles. Those are deductibles in lives lost. They were talking about how many people will have to die before they pay out in relation to these large urban conurbations. We must be aware that nationally and internationally, the agendas of some insurance companies, although not all - I respect every business's right to make its model and build its work - are not always driven by the public interest. They have other bottom-line figures that they need to return. That is why the State, when it tackles and delivers a picture for insurance for the future for the public, must ensure it is one that allows our society to function and makes people feel safe and protected. I ask the Government to place the community model centre-stage and, in areas like climate and others, let the best public interest drive the agenda and let the insurance model chase that, rather than letting insurance companies set the terms again. We need to protect each other and support those who genuinely wish to do that.

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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