THE AVERAGE COST of motor insurance rose by 9% to €623 between 2023 and 2024, according to the latest report on the sector published by the Central Bank. 

Today the Central Bank released the seventh iteration of its motor insurance report, which looks at data from 2010 to 2024 and gives insights into the cost of premiums, claims and the overall aggregated financial performance of the private motor insurance sector.

The figures have been gleaned from the National Claims Information Database (NCID), which compiles data from all insurers selling private motor insurance in Ireland.

The total gross written premium in 2024 for private motor insurance was €1.46bn. 

As well as the cost of premiums, the expected cost of claims per policy also increased by 3% to €397 in 2024, the highest since 2014, a rise the bank said was down to the costs of repairs in damage claims. 

The total cost of all claims settled in 2024 was €792m and damage claim costs accounted for 54% of total settled claim costs, an increase from the 29% average observed between 2015 and 2021.

Damage claims increased by 6%, while the average cost of damage claims increased by 18% compared to 2023, the bank said. 

The cost of injury claims, meanwhile, remained relatively steady. 

“The average cost of smaller injury claims has reduced in recent years, but this has been offset by an increase in the average cost of larger injury claims,” the Central Bank said in a statement. 

Robert Kelly, director of economics and statistics at the Central Bank, said the report was “an important resource for policymakers, stakeholders and the wider financial services industry and improves the overall transparency of the claims environment and the insurance sector”. 

Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland this morning, Minister of State at the Department of Finance Robert Troy said that were it not for reforms introduced by Government over the last number of years, “the gains would have been far, far more significant”. 

He said that high legal costs are a contributing factor to the costs going up, and he will be raising this with Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan “to ensure that his officials work at speed to bring forward reforms that’s needed in this area”.

“People who have a legitimate insurance claim do not need to go down the litigation route. The Injuries Resolution Board can deal with that claim in half the time,” Troy said.

“The compensation you will be awarded will be broadly similar, and the big savings here is the legal fees associated with the injuries resolution board is one-twentieth of the cost of going down through litigation.

“By going through the resolution board, it is far more cost efficient, timely and more effective for the claimant than it is going through litigation, and it saves the legal fees being put on to the cost of your premium.”

Troy also said that work is ongoing to build on the reforms introduced by government. He said work in relation to the introduction of a transparency code “is well advanced”, and that the first Cabinet subcommittee on insurance reform will meet in the next number of weeks.