Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business, the newly appointed managing director of Hibernian Insurance Dick O’Driscoll called on TDs and senators to make Ireland a safer place to live, work and drive in order to reduce long term insurance costs for all.
Addressing the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business, the newly appointed managing director of Hibernian Insurance Dick O’Driscoll called on TDs and Senators to make Ireland a safer place to live, work and drive in order to reduce long term insurance costs for all.
Mr O’Driscoll told members of the joint committee that: “It is only by stringently enforcing all road safety legislation (including penalty points) and workplace health and safety legislation that Ireland will ever see any reduction in the high frequency of insurance claims. Poor enforcement of legislation has lead to high accident levels and consequently high claims costs and unless this is tackled insurance premiums will remain high”.
Hibernian hit the headlines in May when it announced a 10% motor insurance premium reduction for all its customers with no penalty points. While concerned at recent fatalities the company is still committed to the reduction. However Mr O’Driscoll acknowledged that real price reductions for other insurance sectors would only be achieved with the co-operation of the enforcement authorities.
Hibernian’s presentation to the joint committee took account of a major new report* into the insurance industry in Ireland carried out by consulting actuaries Tillinghast-Towers Perrin. The report, which was distributed to members of the Committee and the Competition Authority, raises a number of key points:
- Personal injury awards in Ireland are more than ten times higher than the UK
- Motor offence detection rates are low in Ireland by international standards
- Irish spending on occupational health and safety is approximately half the level of the UK
- Ireland has a poor safety record, both on the roads and in the work place compared with Europe
Mr O’Driscoll told TDs and senators that: “Hibernian can offer incentives to motorists to play safe; as we did with our offer of a 10% discount for penalty point free motorists last month, and to employers with our RiskAsyst™ workplace safety programme. But if we are ever to see real and long lasting changes in the insurance market in Ireland we call on this Committee to ensure stringent enforcement of government legislation”.
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*Tillinghast-Towers Perrin, a firm of international consulting actuaries carried out the study on the Irish insurance industry: “International Benchmarking and Comparative Analysis” on behalf of Hibernian insurance. Markets of most comparative interest were identified as the UK, Spain and New Zealand, with additional comparisons from Canada, Denmark, Finland, South Africa, Israel, the states of California and Massachusetts (US) and Victoria (Australia).
Press contact:
Kela O’Riordan, 01 617 8164, 086 606 8842, kela.oriordan@hibernian.ie
Notes to editors:
- Hibernian is part of the Aviva plc the fifth largest life insurance group in Europe, and seventh globally (based on gross worldwide premia)
- Hibernian is Ireland’s largest composite insurer, ranked first for general insurance and top five for life and pensions
- A photograph is available by ISDN
- Hibernian news releases are also available on www.hibernian.ie