Mattie McGrath (Tipperary, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Five decent actions would put some manners on the insurance industry but 75 recommendations is a fob-off and a cop-out.

Those are the reasons for this debate. What is going on with the motor insurance industry and so many areas of insurance is nothing short of legal robbery. Reference was made to the fact that road hauliers have to go abroad to obtain insurance. It is extortionate and it is blackmail.

I accept that issues such as insurance fraud are significant challenges for the industry. I note the findings of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland, MIBI, in that regard. MIBI is a not-for-profit company established to compensate victims of road traffic accidents that are caused by the drivers of uninsured or unidentified vehicles. I do not condone anyone driving without insurance. Nobody should be on the road without insurance. The MIBI observed that every year they deal with thousands of claims relating to uninsured vehicles and that, in view of there being an estimated 151,000 vehicles without insurance on Irish roads, that level of activity is not unanticipated. I often raise the issue of Gatso vans and the other red vans we see. They are useless because they do not detect insurance fraud. They are just shooting fish in a barrel while it costs millions to compensate for the actions of uninsured drivers. I have exposed the figures in that regard through parliamentary questions that I have tabled. The Government should give more money to the traffic corps in order to allow it to do its job, check uninsured drivers and get them off the road which they have no business being on.

If the house beside those vans was robbed or on fire they would hardly even get out or pick up a phone to ring up about it. As I said here previously, they might even punish and penalise the Garda car going to the event. They are just sitting there. The scheme is wrong. It is a money-making one for the company and it is taking too much money that should be put into road safety.

One piece of research I came across from a concerned driver said he witnessed a 237% increase in the annual premium for his car insurance. We should just think about that, 237%, not 25%, 50% or even 100%, over a five-year period. The Minister of State referred to the Central Bank. We have had years of the Central Bank trying to regulate unscrupulous money lenders for the absolutely exorbitant and rip-off rates of interests they charge customers, yet here we have another industry that seems to operate with impunity regardless of the massive jumps in premium rates. So while the Government seeks to tell us that recent Central Statistics Office, CSO, figures suggest that the cost of motor insurance is falling for the first time in three years, I would point to the study conducted by AA Car Insurance, which was reported by Dan Buckley of the Irish Examinerlast June. It revealed that almost one third of motorists, 30.48%, had to pay between 15% and 30% more for cover. That is independent journalism, not the kind of spin the Government is buying for its major plan. The Government is getting fellows to interview and telling them to put pictures of more Fine Gael candidates on the articles. The Government is out of control. It is in a spin. Someone needs to insure the Government or rein it in because it will do damage to itself. I would say the Government is uninsurable. Mr. Buckley went on to report that a further 24.82% of those surveyed reported a year-on-year increase of between 30% and 50% in premiums.

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