- by Brian Byrne
Insurance lobby calls for price control
12 March 2003: The Motor Insurance Justice Action Group - MIJAG - has repeated its call for price controls to be put on the motor insurance industry, and says that the industry positioned itself for the aftermath of the 2000 Motor Insurance Advisory Board report and increased premiums significantly over recent years.
In a draft submission of a document to be sent to a Dail Committee next week, , MIJAG notes that none of the 67 recommendations have been implemented in full. "Even the simple proposal to remove the 2 per cent government levy or to ring-fence it for safety use was not implemented in this years budget," MIJAG national organiser Mick Murphy says. "Key recommendations such as the Penalty Points system and the Personal Injury Assessment Board (PIAB) were made in Previous reports as far back as 1997, but despite the fact that these proposals have been agreed for several years now they have so far not been implemented successfully."
The submission notes that Penalty Points System was started up prematurely 'but has shown its potential to affect in a very significant way' driver behaviour.
"However the in-ability of the Government to follow through on the system undermines the affect of the whole project and now seriously runs the risk of ending up back where it started," Mr Murphy says. And as of yet there is no sign of the PIAB or the legislation to set it up."
On the positive side, the submission says a number of key initiatives agreed and are due to be implemented and some insurance companies are making changes based on what they see happening in the future.
"The fact that companies like Hibernian are now taking on drivers as young as 20 years of age who have a minimum of three years accident free driving is progress. Older drivers are generally commenting that there has been an improvement in premiums. Much of this seems to be based on the fact that premiums have stopped going up rather than premiums coming down. There is no doubt that the Industry positioned itself for the MIAB aftermath and increased premiums significantly over recent years. The fact that premiums have stopped going up is seen as progress by most people."
MIJAG continues to argue that beginners should be treated as safe drivers until they develop a record as being otherwise. "Beginners should be charged the average premium (approx E 680) and should only be loaded on the basis of penalty points that they have received. In order to move things along the Government should intervene and implement price controls on insurance premiums."
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