Call for all drink driving convictions to be published

The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) has written to the Minister for Transport, Noel Dempsey, requesting that details of all convicted drink-drivers be published.

Insurers are increasingly frustrated that the majority of drivers found guilty of being over the limit are not reporting the conviction to their insurer, despite being obliged to do so under the terms of their policy.

One major motor insurer in the Irish market said only 750 drivers had admitted a drink-driving conviction over the last 12 years. "It should have been at least four to five times that," a source said.

A driver who discloses a drink-driving conviction can expect their premium to at least double, depending on the severity of the case.

The issue has come to the fore again as convictions for drink-driving surged following the introduction of mandatory breath testing.

According to data from the Courts Service annual report, there was a 79 per cent rise in drink-driving cases dealt with by the district courts in 2006, with 27,836 drivers charged with the offence. However, insurers are not seeing a comparable rise in the notifications from drivers admitting to the convictions.

Insurance companies suspect that many drivers are continuing to pay their premiums during their disqualification in the hope that their conviction does not come to the attention of their insurer.

Aside from monitoring local press for conviction details, insurers rely on the policy holder to notify them of a drink-driving conviction or when they incur penalty points.

Under existing legislation, the Courts Service routinely notifies all local authorities motor tax offices and the National Vehicle and Driver File of driving disqualifications and penalty point allocations. However, this does not extend to notifying private companies of disqualifications or penalty points, leaving insurers dependent on their policy holders.

When asked about the issue last night, IIF spokesman Niall Doyle said the federation had written to the Minister and requested that insurers be given access to disqualification information.

"Information on drink-drivers or drivers with penalty points allows us to be more accurate when underwriting a risk. In premium terms, it also allows us to reward safe drivers and penalise unsafe drivers," he said.

"This is a recurring issue for insurance companies and goes back to Mr Brennan's era when penalty points were introduced and we have raised it with the Department in the past."

Dick O'Driscoll, managing director with Hibernian, said that the company examined the number of people convicted of drink-driving and the number who declare such convictions, and there seems to be quite a gap.

"The conclusion has to be that some people, either knowingly or unknowingly, are not declaring these drink-driving convictions." He said Hibernian supported all actions that would help improve road safety, including publication of drink-driving convictions.

Noel Brett, chief executive of the Road Safety Authority, said he was also keen that this information be made available and that it would provide an additional deterrent against drink-driving.

A spokesman for the Minister of Transport said that the letter from the IIF had only recently been received by the Department and was under consideration.