ISME call on CSO to update insurance section on Form B

PRESS RELEASE:

• ISME call on CSO to update The Annual Services Inquiry: Form B as soon as possible
• The current proposal from the CSO to survey insurance quotations makes no sense

ISME does not understand the reported difficulties with the CSO gathering information on the costs of insurance, and says that the most minor adjustments to the Annual Services Inquiry Form B would be required to provide a wealth of robust data. The current form used by the CSO gathers data on operating costs in Question 7. However, it lumps all insurances into one section, which includes premiums paid on vehicles and premises.

 

 

 

 

 

At no extra work for the CSO or respondents, this could be expanded to separately survey employer’s liability, public liability, commercial motor, product liability, and other frequent operating expenses.

The proposal to survey insurance quotations makes no sense whatsoever. In fact, the absolute amounts paid for insurance are less important than the ‘rate’ paid.

For example, a company paying €35,000 for employer’s liability insurance on a wage bill of €700,000 has a ‘rate’ of 5% for employer’s liability. Since the wage bill is already captured in Question 9 of Form B, there is no marginal effort at all in capturing this rate.

 

 

 

 

ISME suggests that the CSO updates Form B as soon as possible. This would give us access to reliable commercial insurance cost data in the first quarter of 2020.

END

____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Notes: 

• The Annual Services Inquiry  2018 – Form B can be found here

• ISME should be referred to as the Irish SME Association.