'What I think will happen, is insurance prices will come down immediately.'

Following the publishing of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Finance's report on the Rising Costs of Motor Insurance, the industry has been accused of ‘cartel-like’ behaviour, and Dorothea Dowling, for one, is very impressed with the work that has happened.

'What's really important is that this committee has examined the data that is in the public domain, and it not support what the industry has been saying'.

The report has proposed, among other things:

• An end to the “closed shop” mentality of the industry and calls for full transparency in relation to claims information
• The Central Statistics Office being given a statutory role in collating insurance date
• Consumers being given detailed cost information in renewal notices
• The insurance companies being compelled to inform the consumer whether they have taken into account the mandatory medical assessments for over-70s drivers when calculating insurance premiums for this cohort

The other important thing Dorothea raised was the role of doctors in all of this, particularly in the case of whiplash claims. She said local GPs and doctors need to be taken out of the process, and independent court doctors need to be assigned.

You can listen to the full interview below.