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The European Central Bank publish their opinion on the Judicial Council (Amendment) Bill 2021

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On the 1st of July 2022, the European Central Bank (the “ECB”) received a request from the Irish Government to provide an opinion in relation to the provisions of the Judicial Council (Amendment) Bill 2021 (2021 Bill).

The purpose of the 2021 Bill is to make a provision for the Central Bank of Ireland (the “CBI”) to report the effects of the new Personal Injuries Guidelines (you can read the Guidelines here) on the cost of insurance. The 2021 Bill allows the Minister for Finance to make regulations that shall require insurance providers to provide information to the CBI about the effect of the personal injury guidelines on individuals who hold insurance policies.

The ECB published their opinion on the 2021 Bill on 25th August. They stated in their assessment that the draft law does not substantially extend or change the existing tasks of the CBI, but rather specifies further examples of the type of information that the CBI shall collect. Gathering, managing and analysing this information will lead to further costs incurred by the CBI. The bill may therefore, be amended to allow the CBI to impose levies on insurers to cover these costs.

You can read the full ECB assessment of the 2021 Bill here.