John Curran (Dublin Mid West, Fianna Fail)
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398. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport the progress he and his Department have made regarding the establishment of a properly functioning motor insurance database with the insurance industry in order to show the insured status of persons; the way in which and when this database will be made available to An Garda Síochána; when he expects this action to contribute to reducing motor insurance premiums; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [33455/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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The establishment of an Insured and Uninsured database is well underway. The Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) will have ownership of and responsibility for the database, which will be made available to my Department and An Garda Siochana. It will be piloted by An Garda Siochana from September 2017 and it is anticipated that it will be fully operational by the end of 2018.

Once the database enters the testing phase and has produced reliable and robust data, it will be a matter for the IT teams in my Department, the MIBI and An Garda Siochana to design an appropriate interface for the exchange of the relevant information required by both parties.

This action will not alone contribute to the reduction in motor insurance premiums, but is one of a number of measures undertaken by the Cost of Insurance Working Group, in which this Department plays an active role, and for which the Minister for Finance is primarily responsible. The second quarterly update of that group is due to be published in the coming days by the Department of Finance. Other actions include the establishment of a fully functioning integrated insurance fraud database for industry to detect patterns of fraud and to establish a personal injuries commission to benchmark international personal injury awards with those in Ireland. These actions are all ongoing and I am confident that we will see a decrease in the cost of motor insurance as they are implemented.