Raft of measures will make pricing of premiums transparent and stop abuse of claims

mistake about it, if the different people who have a role in solving this problem aren’t playing their part, then we will have to get, we’ll have to get tough,’ he said.

His comments come after the Oireachtas Joint Committee for Finance, Public Expenditure and Reform this week examined the issue of rising car insurance and heard that some premiums have more than doubled in recent years.

‘One of the things we’ve discussed was what legislative powers will be there in the event that we need to do something dramatic because people aren’t moving quickly enough on this,’ Mr Murphy said.

‘If we can work together on this, it’s in the industry’s interest as well as the other different stake holders, that consumers are getting a fair price and that they understand the price around their premium, and costs aren’t spiralling out of control.

‘So we’re going to work together. But if people are dragging their feet, we’re also examining legislation we can put in place that is going to force things like greater transparency of data, as well as force information sharing with everyone in the industry, not with just certain players.

‘It’s going to force transparency about claims, force measures to combat fraud, force when renewals are coming up, so people will have a better understanding and an ease of access to different players in the market to see what the actual best price they can get is. There are all kinds of things we can do.’

According to the first-time minister, lower car insurance has been made a priority by the Taoiseach and he [Mr Murphy] will deliver a report to Finance Minister Michael Noonan on how to achieve this by December. Among the reforms he wants to bring in are: Itemised insurance premium bills so consumers will know exactly how their premiums are calculated.

Consumers will be able to get best alternative prices without having to ring around insurers themselves and will no longer have to bargain with insurance firms in a bid to reduce their premium. Bonus discounts for loyalty. Make it easier to change from one insurance company to another.

Make it more difficult to opt out of the Personal Injuries Board claim system, thus cutting the number of spurious claims.

A central database run by an independent body to identify serial claimants and record all claims made and paid so there is a