Insurance policyholders react with dismay as reforms sidelined

Director of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, Peter Boland

“Government is in danger of turning an open goal into an own goal,” says Alliance for Insurance Reform (AIR)

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The Alliance for Insurance Reform has reacted with dismay to the publication of the Government’s Spring 2022 legislative programme without any reference to promised key legislation on insurance reform.

“The government’s Sub Group on Insurance Reform, chaired by Tánaiste Leo Varadkar, promised the general scheme of a Bill on duty of care by September 2021,″ said Peter Boland, director of the Alliance. “We have still not seen that bill and today’s announcement means that we are unlikely to see any meaningful progress on this critical issue during 2022.”

Eoin McCambridge, managing director of McCambridge’s of Galway and director of the Alliance said that the government acknowleged the seriousness of the insurance crisis in establishing the Cabinet Sub-Group for Insurance Reform in 2020. However, despite some initial progress, AIR believes “the Sub-Group is regressing to a box-ticking exercise, recently claiming that ‘34 actions out of 66 have been completed’ when what is needed is an intense focus on meaningful reforms like rebalancing the duty of care.“

“As well as the missed opportunity on duty of care, the government has long-fingered the promised reform of PIAB onto the “All other Legislation” list, which means further delays on legislation originally promised for July 2021,” Boland added. “So, the only piece of legislation regarding general insurance in the Spring 2022 programme is the Insurance (Miscellaneous Provisions) Bill which is essentially an administrative Bill.

“The need for urgent insurance reform has been universally acknowledged for six years now and the key reforms have long been identified,” he continued. “By missing key timelines, the government is in danger of turning an open goal into an own goal.”

AIR is subsequently calling on the Department of Justice and the Tánaiste in his role as Chair of the Cabinet Sub Group on Insurance Reform to “remove whatever barriers are delaying the duty of care legislation and fast track it, so it is implemented as quickly as possible”.

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