The Irish Government recently launched the Motor Insurance Transparency Code (Transparency Code), a priority commitment under its Action Plan for Insurance Reform 2025–2029.

Effective from March 2026, the Transparency Code introduces a new voluntary framework designed to improve how insurers and intermediaries explain motor insurance pricing to Irish private motor insurance customers. Developed with input from industry stakeholders and the Department of Finance and the Central Bank of Ireland, the Transparency Code is intended to strengthen trust, understanding, and consistency across the private motor insurance market in Ireland.

Who the Transparency Code applies to

The Transparency Code is voluntary and open to all insurers and intermediaries offering private motor insurance in Ireland, including cross‑border providers, to sign up. Signatories agree to implement the Transparency Code’s standards across all quotations and renewals for private motor insurance policies.

Key Requirements of the Transparency Code

Insurers and intermediaries who sign up to the Transparency Code commit to implementing the following measures:

• Provide a Premium Summary Statement at the quotation and renewal stage, setting out last year’s premium, the new premium, the amount and direction of change, the main reasons influencing pricing (including risk factors such as driving history, age and experience, location, etc) and any relevant insurer-specific underwriting changes.
• Provide an Annual Market Overview Statement at the quotation and renewal stage, giving consumers a clear, high-level explanation of the broader market conditions influencing motor insurance premiums (including repair and labour cost trends and developments in injury-related claims) and the principle of risk-pooling.
• Provide a summary of risk factors that consumers themselves can control or influence to aid understanding of how consumer behaviour can help reduce premiums (e.g. driver behaviour, voluntary excess, telematics, etc).
• Provide clear information on the broad reasons for declined insurance applications, along with guidance on next steps (e.g. the Declined Cases Agreement for motor insurance).
• Ensure that all consumer communications use clear and jargon-free language and have an online glossary of terms

What compliance with the Transparency Code means

Compliance with the Transparency Code does not replace or alter any existing legal or regulatory obligations. Instead, it acts as a voluntary framework that insurers and intermediaries can adopt to enhance the clarity, consistency, and effectiveness of their customer communications. Under the Transparency Code, each signatory must appoint a Senior Executive with overall responsibility for ensuring compliance and for engaging with the Department of Finance and relevant industry bodies on its implementation.

From a regulatory perspective, adopting the Transparency Code may also support firms in meeting the Central Bank’s new “informing effectively” standard under the Consumer Protection Code 2025 (CPC 2025), which places greater emphasis on ensuring that consumers can genuinely understand the information they are given. While not a substitute for compliance with CPC 2025 (see our article here), the Transparency Code aligns closely with its aims and can help firms demonstrate good‑faith efforts to improve consumer understanding.

Next steps

According to the Irish Government, the Transparency Code will be implemented on a phased basis from March 2026, with consumers expected to begin receiving the relevant information “towards the end of Q3 this year“.  A formal review will take place within 18 months to assess how well the Transparency Code is functioning and its overall impact on achieving its objectives.

For more information on this topic, please contact any member of the Insurance Team at William Fry.

Contributed by Alexandra McGuinness