Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I had a detailed conversation with Insurance Ireland about this issue and then with individual companies. One of the points I put to every company was concerned how they treated returning emigrants. There were different policies. A number of insurance companies did not have a problem with providing insurance if someone was coming from a former Commonwealth country in which people drove on the same side of the road. As we saw that there was inconsistency, we decided that we had to set out a number of measures for the insurance industry to enable consistency to be brought to the issue.

Recommendation No. 6 in the report and actions Nos. 10 to 13 speak about putting in place standard information for consumers. Action No. 11 relates to accepting driver experience abroad where a person has previous driving experience in Ireland and is coming from a country in which people drive on the left side of the road. Action No. 12 relates to accepting driver experience abroad where a person has previous driving experience in Ireland and is coming from a country in which people drive on the other side of the road. Action No. 13 relates to Insurance Ireland making a report to the Department on exactly what it has been doing in that regard. The first report will be presented in the second quarter of this year. We will receive a final report at the end of the year to make sure it does exactly what Senator Rose Conway-Walsh wants it to do. A brief update on recommendation No. 6 is that Insurance Ireland is already examining information on the different approaches that have been taken to date by different insurance companies. As it is to come back to the Department of Finance very shortly, we will then be able to see the different approaches adopted and work with it in deciding what the standard approach should be.