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The Law Society of Ireland has warmly welcomed the publication today of Central Bank data that strips away the insurance industry mask to reveal motor insurance premiums have risen by a massive 42% even though, in the same period, claims fell by 2.5%.

In addition, the Central Bank reveals that the industry is generating an operating profit of no less than 9% while the average level of profit in the UK is 5%.

Director General of the Law Society of Ireland Ken Murphy said, “The Central Bank has shone a statistical searchlight on the false and exaggerated claims of the Irish motor insurance industry. Only one question remains: how will the insurance industry propaganda machine spin this?”

“Today’s data vindicates what the Law Society has been highlighting for years. Neither claims costs nor legal fees could possibly account for, or justify, the massive increases in the premiums motorists have been compelled to pay by extremely profitable insurance companies.”

“A constant feature of this debate is that Irish insurers appear to be very keen to compare average award levels for some forms of injury with their equivalent in the UK. Are they equally keen to compare their operating profit level of 9% in Ireland to the equivalent 5% across the Irish Sea?” 

“Insurers continuously call for injury victims’ awards to be reduced and attempt to deflect blame for ever-rising premiums onto the courts, accident victims and their solicitors. They surely cannot continue to do this when the official data is now here in black and white. We re-iterate: why should injury victims have their awards reduced only to further increase the already massive profits of insurers?”

Mr Murphy concluded, “The Government should now switch its strategy from pressurising the Judicial Council to reduce awards to the victims of accidents and instead focus on using this data to attract international competition into Ireland’s uncompetitive and dysfunctional motor insurance market.”

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