Disability Federation joins campaign for insurance reform

“Rising insurance renewal premiums are a concern to organisations of voluntary disability services because they have to take money from delivering services to pay increasing insurance cost,” said John Dolan, the Federation’s CEO.

The DFI is the national support organisation for voluntary disability groups in Ireland. It is funded through HSE and member direct funding.

Peter Boland of the Alliance for Insurance Reform (AIR) welcomed DFI’s decision. He said: “It is frustrating that an organisation so focused on providing such essential services should feel the need to join our campaign.”

He called on the Government “to urgently accelerate the pace of insurance reform”.

Members of the lobby group for insurance reform now include:

Early Childhood Ireland, Volunteer Ireland, The Wheel, the Irish Charity Shops Association, Community Reuse Network Ireland, Galway County Public Participation Network (PPN), Sligo PPN, South Dublin County PPN and DFI.

 

Specifically, the Alliance wants the Government do the following:

– Seek additional underwriting capacity for the Irish market, including the voluntary sector, to improve competition and insure sectors that currently cannot get cover.

– Review and re-balance the “common duty of care” to require occupiers to take a duty of care that is reasonable, practical, and proportionate.

– Reform and strengthen the Personal Injuries Assessment Board.

– Insist that insurers deliver immediate reductions for delivered and planned reform.

The Alliance now claims through its membership of 46 civic and business organisations from across Ireland to represent over 700,000 employees, almost 600,000 volunteers and over 370,000 students. It promises to continue to highlight “the negative impact of persistently high premiums” while calling for “real reforms that will quickly reduce liability and motor insurance premiums to affordable levels”.

More info: https://insurancereform.ie/ and https://www.disability-federation.ie/