Eamon Ryan (Dublin Bay South, Green Party) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 19:

In page 13, between lines 30 and 31, to insert the following: “(5) A person who contravenes subsection (4) commits an offence and is liable on summary conviction to a class E fine.”.

In a similar vein to what I have just said about the need for an enforcement mechanism for commercial fleet vehicle, amendment No. 19 provides for such a mechanism for private individuals recognising that they also have to update the database if they have, for example, changed address, added a new named driver or changed other aspects of their own personal information. It is again to provide for a compliance mechanism in the event that someone was not updating the database in that way. In this case, because we are dealing with private individuals rather than fleet owners, we are setting out a class E fine, which is a potential fine of up to €500. We set a higher standard for business.

Most of the other amendments in the grouping are largely technical and make small adjustments to errors in the text. The other one of some significance is amendment No. 25, which states that an insurer who issues a policy without receiving the proper information from the client first, which an offence under the Bill, will be able to make a defence of having taken reasonable steps and exercised all due diligence. In other words, if an insurer does not provide an update and there is subsequently a problem, if it can be seen that the insurer took significant steps and did not ignore the requirement, which is a valid defence-----