This study (published March 2005) focused on motor insurance, employer’s liability insurance and public liability insurance.

The Competition Authority found that the persistence of high profits among insurance companies, combined with slow rates of entry and low levels of cost reduction, suggested that competition was not as vigorous as would be expected in a truly competitive market.

We made 47 recommendations, focusing on three areas:

• Barriers to Entry: Implementing some of our recommendations has increased the availability of information on costs and claims statistics. Accurate, timely and easily accessible information on claims helps insurers, including potential new insurers, to assess the insurance market.
• Ease of Switching: We recommended that companies providing liability insurance must issue a renewal notice at least 15 working days prior to the expiration of the insurance policy. This gives businesses time to shop around for lower quotes from rival insurers.
• Price Transparency: Following our recommendations, the Financial Regulator publishes and regularly updates price surveys on a range of insurance products (these are available on the Finanancial Regulator’s website). These surveys inform consumers and help them in negotiating with insurance companies.

The majority of our recommendations (36) were addressed to the Financial Regulator. By the end of 2009, the Financial Regulator had addressed all the recommendations within its remit; some recommendations were enacted indirectly through other legislation.

A smaller number of recommendations were addressed to the Department of Transport (4), the Department of Finance (1), the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (4), the Courts Service/Department of Justice, Equality and Law Reform (1) and insurance intermediaries generally (1).

A list of the priority recommendations not yet implemented is given below.

Unimplemented Recommendations

Deirdre McHugh
Tel: 01 804 5466
e-mail: dmch@tca.ie