Representatives from the Health and Safety Authority and FBD Insurance have told a meeting of ICOS mart managers that they expect all marts to implement some sort of restricted access to reduce the risk of accidents, as spiralling insurance costs rose to political prominence in the past week.

While the Irish Farmers Journal understands only around a dozen marts, mostly in the west, have toughened safety rules two hearings of the Oireachtas finance committee in the past week highlighted the urgency of more widespread measures.

Donegal Mart manager Eimear McGuinness told the committee her mart’s premium had more than doubled from €6,500 to €13,500 in the past three years, with increases of 20% to 30% reported by most marts in the past year alone.

“There’s a lot of marts that had huge hikes and had no claims – that’s very unfair,” she said, complaining that insurers settle claims too easily. Marts will close down if prices don’t come down, McGuinness added, calling for a Government scheme to support them in implementing costly safety measures.

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FBD insures 52 of Ireland’s 77 marts, its chief commercial officer John Cahalan said. However, this is a loss-making sector for the company, which is often the only insurer that will give marts a quote.

“For every euro we underwrite in the marts, it’s costing us €1.30. We’re losing money on marts because the cost of claims and the frequency of claims have gone up,” he said.

Minister of State for Financial Services and Insurance Michael D’Arcy told the committee he was working to implement the recommendations of a recent report on insurance costs, but this will take time.

This means that drastically reducing the number of accidents and claims is currently the only way of reining in insurance costs in the sector.

Roscommon Mart board member and ICOS marts chair Michael Spellman told the Irish Farmers Journal that a ban on public access to his mart’s lairage implemented immediately after a serious accident at neighbouring Mohill Mart in April was “working well”.

While he doesn’t expect the mart’s insurance premium to decrease immediately as a result, “if it stopped increasing it would be an achievement”, he said.

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Listen: mart safety measures to spread as insurance costs continue to soar

With marts reporting 20% to 30% increases in insurance premiums last year, strict safety measures seem to be the only way of tackling spiralling costs.