Less than 1 per cent of claims paid out for uninsured drivers recouped each year

Less than 1 per cent of motor crash claims paid out on behalf of uninsured drivers is recouped every year, an Oireachtas committee has heard.

David Fitzgerald, chief executive of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI), the body that covers the financial cost of crashes involving drivers without cover, said it pays out about €70 million in compensation claims every year.

“That means that the law-abiding motorists are subsidising uninsured drivers to the tune of approximately €30 to €35 every time they renew their motor insurance policies,” he told the Oireachtas Transport Committee on Wednesday.

However, the committee heard that only around €500,000 of the total is clawed back from those responsible and even that costs the MIBI about €250,000 in legal fees.

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Committee members were told that, at 8.3 per cent, Ireland could now have the highest rate of uninsured vehicles in the EU. The MIBI, funded by the insurance sector to compensate victims of accidents caused by uninsured drivers and unidentified vehicles, has paid out more than €2 billion since it was established in 1995.

“We look after the innocent party [and] we will then go back after the driver of the vehicle,” explained Tom O’Brien, MIBI technical claims manager.

“We only collect maybe about €400,000 to €500,000 a year in money being recovered from uninsured drivers and the primary reason for that is that most of the uninsured drivers are people that don’t have much means.

“So in comparison to what we’re paying out, maybe €70 million a year, it’s very small what we are actually able to recover from individuals who have actually caused the accident.”

The hearing was also told that people can manipulate the online system to tax their cars without having a valid insurance policy in place, simply by entering a false policy number that cannot be verified.

“That’s not something we’d look to see widely publicised, so at the moment there isn’t that check,” said Mr Fitzgerald, who called for an acceleration of pending legislation that would allow for a wider sharing of insurance details.

“This would be one of the advantages of passing the Road Traffic and Roads Bill because we would have a safe legal basis then to pass that insurance date to the Department of Transport and that would enable [it] to build validation in the way you’re describing, real time validation into their systems.”

[ The Irish Times view on the rising number of uninsured drivers ]

The bureau estimates, based on current trends, that the level of uninsured private vehicles is “likely to pass” the 200,000 mark in the next 12 to 18 months.

Enacting the Bill would help prevent that, according to Mr Fitzgerald, who said it would free up the sharing of all the insurance data, already available in the Irish Motor Insurance Database (IMID), with gardaí and other agencies.

This would also enable the Garda’s Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) system to check for uninsured vehicles.

Responding to questions, Mr Fitzgerald said GoSafe speed vans could similarly be equipped to screen for insurance on passing cars, although this could require separate legislation.

Fianna Fáil Senator Timmy Dooley said he was concerned about a “particularly aged cohort of our population” who have never passed a driving test but remained driving with successive learner permits.

“I know from the work that I do there are people in their mid to late seventies, and some in their eighties, who now don’t insure their cars, can’t insure their cars because they don’t have a driving licence,” he said. “They’re never going to do a test.”

Mr Fitzgerald said UK law would be worth considering where it is an offence to own a vehicle without insurance, whereas in Ireland gardaí must “catch the uninsured driver in the act”.