MINISTER FOR Transport Noel Dempsey has said he will introduce new legislation forcing motor insurance companies to hand over all their records on car write-offs to stop them reappearing on the roads, if they refuse to do so voluntarily.
The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) has said insurance companies are willing to forward this data to the Department of Transport voluntarily, and has suggested handing it over every three months.
A spokeswoman for the department said it would use the insurers’ data to cross-check it against the state vehicle register, the National Vehicle Driver File (NVDF) to “flag” any write-offs and notify unsuspecting vehicle owners.
Insurers are not obliged to pass write-off information to the department or the public, and there is no complete state register on write-offs. The IIF has, until recently, refused to provide it, saying insurers’ records are not fully complete.
However, following an investigation, led by the RSA, which found that vehicles classified as total write-offs and unroadworthy were being repaired and returned to the roads, the IIF has agreed to make this information available.
The department said Hibernian, which controls 25 per cent of the motor insurance market, was “first off the block” in providing its records voluntarily late last year.
It forwarded details on 5,429 vehicles registered on its files since 2002 as write-offs. The department then cross-checked this list with more than three million vehicles on the NVDF, and found that 261 write-offs were on the road again, as they had been re-registered by new owners or taxed again.
The department wrote to the 261 vehicle owners yesterday warning them to have their vehicles independently checked urgently. “I urge all of those who receive this letter to waste no time in having their vehicle examined by a qualified automotive engineer. It could save a life – maybe their own,” Mr Dempsey said.
He said “a tracking system” had been put in place to ensure that in future all vehicles written-off would be notified to the department. “If necessary I am prepared to legislate to compel insurance companies to supply this information; however, at this stage I am confident that insurance companies will voluntarily make this information available on a systematic basis.”