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Motorists paying a premium for uninsured drivers

The number of claims for incidents involved uninsured cars or those that cannot be traced jumped 11% last year

Every motorist's premium is up to €35 higher to cover the cost of claims made involving uninsured or untraced vehicles. Photograph: iStock

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Cantillon
Tue Apr 30 2024 - 05:00

Uninsured drivers are the scourge of the roads and a bane for the vast majority of motorists who jostle with the vagaries of premium pricing on each renewal to ensure they are properly protected in case anything goes wrong on the road.

They either assume they are invincible on the road and therefore will never need insurance, or simply could not care for those they may injure, maim or kill or the cost of the repairs that they will burden others with.

New figures out from the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) throws a little light on just how big a problem this is. And the answer is that it is not good.

The number of claims for accidents caused by vehicles that were either uninsured or were never traced jumped 11 per cent last year to just shy of 2,000. Unsurprisingly perhaps, the largest number by far were in Dublin, followed by Cork, Limerick, Kildare and Galway.

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Kildare, along with Meath and Mayo, saw the highest increase in such claims last year.

MIBI says the cost of these claims is footed by law-abiding drivers in terms of higher premiums, with the group estimated that every driver is paying between €30 and €35 on their annual premium to help the industry meet the cost.

Frustration on all sides over the rising trend is reflected in a new data sharing agreement which means that, since November last, the MIBI gives the insurance details for three million insured vehicles on Irish roads to An Garda Síochána, allowing gardaí to check the insurance status of any vehicle simply by scanning its registration plate.

Credit where it is due. The figures do also show that claims by uninsured drivers fell in nine counties and were unchanged in a further three. But the trend remains upwards.

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