Danny Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

I am glad to have the opportunity to talk about this serious matter. The first group of young drivers are discriminated against to the extent that it is almost impossible for them to go on the road now with the cost of insurance, even with a full licence. Indeed for those with only a provisional licence there is a Minister here saying they should not be on the road at all and that the people who own the cars should be put in jail. However, he does not have to live in rural Ireland.

It must be recognised that youngsters need their cars to go to college. The other day we were talking about providing teachers. Youngsters need their car to go to college and then to the school where they do work experience and to travel back home again. In some cases it can be over 100 miles per day. How can they do this without a car? We have to be realistic. They cannot get insurance. They are being charged €3,500, €4,000 or maybe €4,500 for insurance, which is wrong.

It is wrong for any Minister to say in this Chamber that insurance premiums have reduced by 17% because they have not. They clearly and most definitely have not. I was talking to people who rang me a while ago.

They have gone up, year by year, over the past three years. The Minister of State should get out of the bubble he is in. He is in a bubble if he thinks premiums have gone down by 17%. Old people's insurance has doubled in the past three years. It has doubled and that is a fact. Taxi operators in Killarney and Tralee tell me that their insurance has gone up to three times its original amount in the past two years. That is a fact. Only two insurance companies quote them for insurance. That is wrong. Those people are being militated against and find it very hard to continue. It is the same story with road hauliers. Insurance goes up, on top of all the regulation, the Road Safety Authority, RSA, and all the other carry-on, such as checkpoints. Even perfectly new vehicles that are only barely on the road are checked out and sent off to garages. On top of that, the cost of insurance is going up.

We have instances of claims where the sum received for whiplash in England is £7,600. Those sums are anything from €19,000 to €77,000 in Ireland. We have the brass necks but they must have gold necks in Ireland to be able to get that amount of compensation.

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