Insurance costs are crippling firms

January 1988

Wexford factories, hotels and schools are being finally crippled by spiralling insurance costs and this week a call was made for Government action to save concerns from going out of business.

Jackman Engineering in Ardcavan is one of those having to pay a big increase in public liability insurance premiums, and the cost is proving ‘a big problem’, according to personnel manager, Maurice Moynihan.

‘The premium has gone up 40% this year. It’s a big burden on our books,’ he said.

At White’s Hotel, the premium for public insurance has risen to a ‘horrendous’ figure in the past two years.

‘It’s getting completely out of hand,’ said hotel director Anne Small. ‘If it continues, it will eventually put us out of business.’

Mrs. Small declined to reveal the actual figure paid by the hotel in public liability insurance, but said the cost was ‘unbelievable’.

‘And the annoying thing is it is not our fault. We are just vulnerable because of the type of business we are,’ she said.

People had become much more likely to claim in recent years, she said, and they believed the insurance company would pay, but they didn’t know that the claim was always pushed back onto the policy holder.

Schools are not exempt from insurance claims either and at Wexford Vocational School there has been a whopping increase in the premium from £2,000 last year to £25,000 this year.

C.E.O. Terry McDermott was shocked when he received notice of the new annual premium a few weeks ago.

He first assumed it was just a typographical error and that the real figure being sought was £2,500 but when he rang the Irish Public Bodies Insurance Company to check, they confirmed the increase was to £25,000. Mr McDermott this week described this as “staggering”.

Voluntary clubs in Wexford are also being hit by high insurance demands, and according to Mary Carberry of Wexford Community Services Council, many affected groups can’t use the premises because they can’t afford insurance cover.

The Council itself currently pays £2,381 for public liability cover.