Many of the recommendations and findings of the report on practices in the motor insurance industry were "a wake-up call" for insurers, the Irish Insurance Federation has admitted.
"We must now take the necessary steps to enhance customer service and information," its chief executive, Mr Michael Kemp, said. The IIF welcomed the report but had reservations about the tone of certain parts of it, he said.
The report criticised the insurance industry for its lack of co-operation with the MIAB in compiling the report. But Mr Kemp felt in this respect the report was " unduly critical of insurers".
"We have to hold our hands up and say perhaps we were not as co-operative perhaps in the outset as we could have been but I think over the last 18 months or so we have moved heaven and earth to provide data that the MIAB required," he said.
He stressed that figures in the report showing the Irish motor industry made 10 times the profit of their UK counterparts over a 17-year period were now out of date and said the industry was suffering heavy losses.
He pointed out that only three pages out of 26 pages of recommendations were addressed to the insurance industry, the rest being addressed to government departments and others. "A lot of the ones that are addressed to us are more to do with providing more information in a more timely way to consumers and explaining the operation of the market a bit better and I would accept that we haven't been the greatest at that in the past," he said.
He said motor insurance premiums were unlikely to fall in the short term. "It's a question of when claims costs come down. The fact that a report has been made of itself does not mean anything is going to change in the short term but I'm enthused by the idea that there is going to be quick action on this, that the implementation group is only going to be given three months to report."
The director general of the Law Society, Mr Ken Murphy, said he had not made a submission to the MIAB because he felt it was investigating matters "internal to the insurance industry of which we have no direct knowledge".
He said the society enthusiastically supported most of the report's recommendations. However, it thought a personal injuries assessment board would "simply represent an additional layer of bureaucracy in the system", resulting in further delays and higher premiums.
The report was welcomed by organisations including the Chambers of Commerce, the Motor Insurance Justice Action Group, Macra na Feirme and the National Youth Council of Ireland.