IIF defends insurance loophole

AS THE Garda, Revenue and the Society of the Irish Motor Industry (SIMI) crack down on the illegal use of foreign-registered cars by Irish residents, the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) has defended its members who offer to insure such vehicles.

According to Revenue, not just driving but possession of a foreign-registered car by an Irish resident is forbidden in all but a limited set of circumstances, by Section 131 of the Finance Act 1992.

Under the Act, Irish residents who import cars have 24 hours to have them re-registered or face fines and confiscation of the vehicles.

It is not against the law for insurance companies to offer insurance policies on foreign-registered cars, to Irish resident drivers. However senior gardaí have expressed frustration at the practice, particularly mentioning Quinn Direct as providing such policies.

The company, which acknowledged it insures such vehicles has insisted it does so “in common with industry practice”.

However SIMI, which last year asked its members to report Irish residents known to be driving on foreign plates, has called on the insurance industry to close the loophole, estimating the Government is losing out on €50-€100 million annually due to people failing to pay VRT and motor tax.

Now SIMI has said it believes such Irish resident motorists are taking unfair advantage of fellow motorists by having a registration which can not be traced for a number of penalty point offences, as well as toll and parking fines.

The Road Safety Authority too has expressed concern at the high numbers of penalty point offences which are now “unattributable”, a feature which it ascribes at least in part to foreign-registered cars passing speed cameras.

“There is a big problem here,” said SIMI’s Ted Cullen, “and it could be solved by the IIF supplying details of such policies to Garda”. He believes it would be a good idea for the industry to supply gardaí with this information as part of the daily updates of vehicles it currently provides on policies that have not been renewed.

Mike Kemp of the IIF said such policies were offered by Irish companies which were authorised to operate in the country which issued the registration plate, as the risk is deemed to be in that country.

Kemp said this was the way insurance companies worked, and while he could see the enforcement difficulties for Revenue and gardaí, the insurance companies were not enforcers of the rules regarding import taxes.