The Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (“MIBI”) published a new notification on its website on October 11, 2023. According to this notification, the Minister announced that the annual percentage rate of the contributions to the Motor Insurers Insolvency Compensation Fund (MIICF) will be reduced from 2% to 1%. The revised rate will be effective from January 1, 2024, and the annual payment to MIBI, payable on June 30, 2025, should be computed accordingly.
Additionally, the Department of Finance (DoF) informed MIBI that the Irish legislation will be updated by December 23, 2023, to reflect the new measurements of the Sixth Motor Insurance Directive (2009/103/EC). This directive relates to insurance against civil liability arising from the use of motor vehicles and the enforcement of the obligation to insure against such liability. In Directive 2021/2118 of the European Parliament and of the Council of November 24, 2021, (“the Amendment Directive”) it is outlined that Member States may include requirements to make financial contributions to cover the costs of such liabilities, provided that they are only imposed on insurance undertakings that have been authorized by the Member State imposing them. Because of this, as of December 23, 2023, MIBI will stop collecting contributions for the MIICF and the levy for the Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF) for policies that cover Class 10 businesses written on both Freedom of Services (FoS) and Freedom of Establishment (FoE) basis. It emphasises that these charges, at a rate of the 2% will continue to be applied for Class 1 (d) (Accident> passenger insurance), Class 3 (Motor) and Class 7 (Goods in Transit) risks.
The corresponding legislations are yet to be adjusted and more precise guidelines will be published in due course.
