Minister of State D’Arcy welcomes announcement regarding the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee designate by Chief Justice Clarke

The Minister of State with responsibility for Financial Services and Insurance, Michael D’Arcy TD, today welcomed the announcement by the Chief Justice, Frank Clarke at today’s Insurance Ireland Fraud Conference , that he has selected the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee designate. He notes the balanced composition of the Committee, which reflects all court levels.

Minister of State D’Arcy is particularly pleased that the Chief Justice has indicated that the designate Committee will meet shortly to commence work on an informal basis. He believes that this demonstrates that the Judiciary are giving this matter the priority it deserves. The Minister of State recognises that developing a new set of personal injury award guidelines is the prerogative of the Judiciary, however is willing to provide them with any background assistance, such as input from the Cost of Insurance Working Group, should they think that necessary. He also understands that PIAB has written to the Judiciary to offer its expertise and assistance for the purpose of this recalibration exercise.

Minister of State D’Arcy noted that he and Minister Donohoe are very eager to have the Judicial Council up and running and that the Government is doing all it can to facilitate this process. In this regard, Minister Flanagan commenced the relevant provisions of the Act a number of months ago to allow all the necessary background work to be completed in preparation for the formal establishment of the Judicial Council. In addition, Minister Donohoe allocated €1 million in Budget 2020 to enable the process to be expedited by the Judiciary. These steps will ensure that the Judiciary has the necessary means so that when the Council is established, its various functions, can be operationalised.

The Minister of State also notes the comments made by the Interim Insurance Ireland CEO Gerry Hassett at the same conference that if award levels come down so will premiums. The Minister of State believes that this is a very reassuring commitment and it is one he intends holding the insurance industry to.

Finally, the Minister of State is of the view that a recalibration of award levels will go a very significant way towards addressing the current problems around the affordability and availability of insurance being experienced by impacted businesses and voluntary groups.

Further Note to Journalists

In 2018, arising from a recommendation of the Cost of Insurance Working Group (CIWG), the Personal Injuries Commission’s (PIC) benchmarking exercise confirmed that soft tissue injury award levels in Ireland are much higher than in other jurisdictions - for example, 4.4 times higher than in England and Wales. The PIC recommended that action be taken to address this disparity through the establishment of a Judicial Council, and that this new body would become responsible for preparing the guidelines on personal injury award levels, and would replace the Book of Quantum. In doing this, the PIC believes that the Judicial Council will, in compiling the guidelines, take account of the jurisprudence of the Court of Appeal, the results of its benchmarking exercise etc.

The legislation to give effect to this recommendation, the Judicial Council Act 2019, was enacted during the summer, following cross party support in the Oireachtas. While the commencement of the Judicial Council Act is a matter for the Minister for Justice and Equality, and the formal establishment of the Judicial Council is a matter for the Judiciary, the Minister of State is satisfied that work to establish the Judicial Council is well underway and in that respect, the Chief Justice has stated that he hopes to be able to do so before the end of this year.

The Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee is the committee within the Judicial Council that will be charged with introducing new guidelines to replace the Book of Quantum. It is expected that the Committee will revise recommended award levels downwards, but the Government cannot interfere in the work of the Committee, nor the Judicial Council generally. In Budget 2020, €1 million was assigned to the Judicial Council for the purposes of its work.

Under the Judicial Council Act 2019, the Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee shall be formally established no later than three months following the first meeting of the Judicial Council, and it shall submit its first draft of personal injuries guidelines not later than six months after its establishment. It will then be up to the Council to adopt these guidelines, and the Committee must review them at least once every three years. It is understood that the formal establishment of the Council is due via Statutory Instrument in the coming weeks, however work has already begun on the administrative tasks that must be completed to enable the Council to do its work.

There have been a number of other positive legislative changes relating to insurance reform over the last two years, most of which come on foot of the Government’s Cost of Insurance Working Group’s reports and recommendations. In particular, three pieces of legislation on insurance reform have been enacted – namely, the Insurance (Amendment) Act 2018, the Central Bank (National Claims Information Database) Act 2018, and the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Act 2019. These changes have had a positive impact on motor insurance premiums as CSO figures from October 2019 show that the price of motor insurance is now 27.1% lower than the July 2016 peak. The Government is determined to extend these positive pricing developments to other forms of insurance, in particular insurance for businesses