Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has criticised the Government for voting to suspend Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s proposed Insurance Bill for nine months, saying that thousands of customers are going to lose out through this cynical delaying tactic.<\/p>\n
The Insurance Bill would reduce insurance prices by banning the practice of \u2018dual pricing\u2019, used by companies to identify loyal customers and charge them artificially high premiums.<\/p>\n
The practice affects millions of policyholders, costing many customers hundreds of euro per year on their car and home insurance.<\/p>\n
Teachta Crowe said:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Government has voted to delay Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s proposed Insurance Bill to ban the practice of dual pricing and increase transparency in how the insurance industry sets prices.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe legislation would put money back in the pockets of motorists and homeowners by reducing their premiums.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt would stop insurance companies penalising and ripping-off loyal customers.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past decade, insurance costs have risen by 35 percent despite the cost of claims falling by 9 percent.<\/p>\n
\u201cInsurance companies price gouge Irish customers every year using a practice that is banned in 20 US states and is soon to be banned in Britain.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey use dual pricing to target loyal and vulnerable customers and then charge them artificially high premiums when they renew.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the so called \u2018loyalty penalty\u2019 means that customers are overcharged by hundreds of euros every year.<\/p>\n
\u201cBanning dual pricing would overnight reduce the cost of home and car insurance for customers. It would require the Central Bank to draw up and enforce regulations that will govern the ban, with any insurance companies that defies or tries to ignore the ban facing heavy financial penalties.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn Britain, the financial regulator estimates that a ban would cut insurance costs for customers by 10%, saving customers between \u20ac4 and \u20ac13 billion over the next decade.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately, the government here tabled a motion that would delay this legislation for nine months, delaying this reform for over a year.<\/p>\n
\u201cIrish consumers cannot afford to wait 12 months and are the victims in this delay<\/p>\n
\u201cThousands of loyal customers will now lose out because of this cynical delaying tactic from a Government that are not serious about fixing the insurance industry rip off.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Sinn F\u00e9in TD for Dublin South West Se\u00e1n Crowe has criticised the Government for voting to suspend Sinn F\u00e9in\u2019s proposed Insurance Bill for nine months, saying that thousands of customers are going to lose out through this cynical delaying tactic. The Insurance Bill would reduce insurance prices by banning the practice of \u2018dual pricing\u2019, used […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4480","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4480"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4483,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4480\/revisions\/4483"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4480"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4480"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4480"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}