Motorists are still being "ripped off" on insurance premiums with a new report showing consumers paid out 50 per cent more on average to cover themselves on the road than they did in 2013.
The second Motor Insurance Report of the National Claims Information Database, published by the Central Bank, shows premiums fell 4 per cent between 2018 and the end of last year, having soared by 63 per cent between 2013 and 2018.
According to the Irish Examiner, while the average number of claims continues to fall, the average cost per claim, whether injury or damage, continues to rise.
The recent modest reduction in premiums has not satisfied the Alliance for Insurance Reform, which said urgent action was now needed to rein in the cost to motorists, who were still being "ripped off".
The alliance's director, Peter Boland, said that the report:
"Lays bare the scale of the greed that has driven the current insurance crisis, enriching insurance companies, brokers and lawyers at the expense of Irish motorists struggling to make ends meet."
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Sustainable levels
"Nothing much has changed since the first National Claims Information Database report was published this time last year and nothing the Government has done so far has applied downward pressure to premiums," he said.
“There is a clear case from this data for immediate reductions in motor insurance premiums to sustainable levels and an urgent acceleration in the real reform programme promised by the Cabinet Committee Sub-Group on insurance reform," he said.
The average cost per policy was €676 in 2019, down from the average high of €714 in the second quarter of 2018 but still considerably above the average low of €431 at the end of 2013.
The report also shows that while the cost per claim increased 65 per cent from 2009 to 2019, over the same period the frequency of claims fell by 45 per cent, decreasing by 5 per cent between 2018 and 2019.
