Niall Collins (Limerick County, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I am sharing time with Deputy Lawless.

It is timely to discuss this issue tonight. There are a staggering number of vehicles on our roads in comparison to the population. There are 2.1 million vehicles on our roads every day. Unlike other types of insurance, it is mandatory to have motor insurance. Some parts of our economy are entitled to self-insure, and they do that and police it rigorously. However, people must have motor insurance and the market is dictating very onerous terms to them. This does not only affect the car insurance industry. Employers and small businesses must pay employer, public liability and other insurance, so there is a knock-on impact there. The practices of the insurance companies in how they deal with claims and the lack of visibility of the payouts and the data surrounding those claims is also the case with employer, public liability and fire insurance and the entire suite of insurance products.

Most of the agenda this country has been pursuing over the last number of years has been towards increasing our competitiveness to allow us to compete on the international stage. This issue is damping down our competitiveness. Consider what the haulage industry has been saying about motor insurance. The role that industry plays in the supply chain for getting our products from our island economy to the UK and mainland Europe is immense. I hope the Minister will have something substantial to say on this issue. I am reminded of similar debates we have had in the House on the variable mortgage interest rate, where we pay a higher rate than our nearest neighbours and people in Europe. In that case, the Minister said he, as Minister for Finance, does not have the power to dictate but that he does have the power to influence. It is questionable whether he has the power to influence the main banks in determining the interest rate, but in this instance we must take a proactive step to try to address the underlying issue.

As my colleague outlined, the fact that 75% to 80% of claims are settled outside of the courts or the Personal Injuries Assessment Board is staggering. We must deal with it. It is worth noting what happens with one's health insurance, be it with VHI or Aviva. When one is renewing a policy or, indeed, at any point during the year, one can get a great deal of information and data from the companies. They will give a full list of the payouts under the insurance policy, including all the doctors, consultants and hospitals that were paid. We do not get that with our car insurance.

This is a serious issue for young drivers. They are faced with huge premiums. There is also the issue of older cars. The insurance companies are finding reasons to refuse insurance for a car that has a valid national car test, NCT, certificate simply because the car is older. That should not be acceptable. If the State mandates a company to run the NCT programme and it certifies cars as roadworthy, that should be the end of it. It should not be up to the insurance companies to second-guess it or to allow that to happen.

Another issue has come to people's attention. Legislation provides that 12 penalty points will put a person off the road. However, if one has six, seven or eight points, some insurance companies will refuse to renew one's insurance. Potentially, six or seven penalty points is now the new 12 penalty points. Again, the insurance companies are adopting this policy on an à la cartebasis. There is no transparency or consistency about it, and it is damaging the consumer.

I will describe the example provided by a business in the mid-west. I will not name the business or the person behind it, but the Minister will know it well because it is in Limerick city. The man runs a taxi business with a fleet of eight taxis. He has an 11-year no-claims record. There have been no claims against him, not even for a windscreen. They have been no minor payouts. In 2013, he paid Liberty Insurance €7,000 for his fleet renewal premium. In 2014, he paid €14,000, which was an increase of 100%. He was asked to pay €56,000 in 2015 so he found an alternative provider, a new company, and paid it €31,000. That provider is now leaving the Irish market and nobody is willing to insure this man's fleet of taxis. I realise the taxi business is a high risk industry and that there have been many high-profile cases involving taxis, but this man has an 11-year no-claims bonus.

We seek, primarily, the re-establishment of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board, MIAB, to give people a degree of transparency and certainty. People must have certainty about what they will have to pay for insurance and business must have certainty about its insurance costs.

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