Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, lines 1 and 2, to delete all words from and including “as” in line 1 down to and including line 2 and substitute the following:
“up to three years old from the date of the request by the vehicle insurer, and (c) in the case of request by the vehicle insurer, the vehicle insurer is obliged to notify the insured person that they are requesting access or copies of endorsements of the person, this notification shall be done via registered post to the registered address of the person concerned.”.

I welcome the Minister to the House. I hope he is in one of these humours which means we will make good law today by improving this Bill further. The amendment takes a little explanation. The first part of the amendment aims to ensure some checks and balances for the customer, the person whose vehicle is insured. When penalty points are erased from a driver's account - 12 points after three years - I am not sure that the record of the penalty points is completely erased. I do not think that the old penalty points simply disappear into thin air three years to the day after they were received. I know this is the intention but I wish to ensure they do not come back. I do not think that a vehicle insurer should have the right to pry into a person's old records which could be used to load a person's insurance. We all know about the large degree of speculation and theories tied to vehicle insurance. If the Minister is going to allow insurance companies to request records then there should be some parameters on such a request. This may seem to be technical or even excessive but I would like the Minister to accept this amendment as there is a duty on us as legislators to protect the citizen who is the customer.

In my view, a person has the fundamental right to know if a private company is prying into his or her private business. To allow private companies to pry into a person's private business concerns me and should concern all of us. At the very least, this amendment would ensure that the person concerned knows that a company is looking into his or her business. At the same time it may dissuade insurers from making so many requests. The intention is that penalty points would be dropped after a certain period of years. I do not like the thought that an insurance company could look up those records many years later. This amendment is designed to copper-fasten the intention of the law as it stands. I urge the Minister to consider the amendment.