Last month I had the audacity to change my 12-year-old Japanese import after some bit of the clutch finally wore out.
The repair work would have cost as much as the car was worth, so I bit the bullet and traded up. For my troubles the insurance company quickly sent a bill for € 476 to keep things afloat until the policy ends next August. At that stage, the customer service guy told me, it will cost more than € 2,000 to keep two of us insured to drive.
Fair enough I suppose. As there is little we like more than racing away from the lights on the way to playschool in the mornings, we are a big risk alright. Oh yes, being under the age of 30 (just about), we really like to put the diesel-powered family saloon through its paces on the way to work. The good news is that in two years I can escape the persecution insurance companies like to inflict on those of us not yet drawing the pension. But there may be problems down the road. Young drivers may feel they are being singled out for unfair treatment. Not so, says Age Action Ireland, a non-governmental network of organisations and individuals concerned with ageing and older people.
"We are getting calls from people who are seeing their premiums go up or are having renewals made more difficult, or are being denied insurance altogether," says Age Action spokesman Paul Murray.
"A lot of these people are saying they have blameless driving records. There is an assumption that health is necessarily an issue for older people. There is an assumption that everything stops when you reach a certain age." By the year 2011 it is estimated that people aged 65 and over will represent 14.1 per cent of the Republic's population. The percentage in 2001 was 11.2 per cent, out of a population of 3,838,900. People are more healthy, are living longer as a consequence, and are retiring earlier. And just because you have reached the age of 70, your eyesight, hearing and ability to stay on the left-hand side of the road don't just disappear. In fact, your car is probably more important to you than ever before.
"But if you're a risk, you're a risk. That's fair enough," adds Murray, who believes insurance premiums should be based on individual risk assessments rather than blanket increases as a result of reaching a certain age. Those at the younger end of the age spectrum might agree.
Indeed, the Minister for Transport, Mr Brennan, might also agree. Last week it emerged he was seeking a 15 per cent reduction in insurance premiums for drivers who do not accumulate penalty points. The savings proposed would work out at € 150 for a policy-holder whose premium costs € 1,000. Mr Brennan has given insurance firms four weeks to guarantee the bonus, but they have so far refused to agree to the figures.
There is no industry-wide standard which says older people should be charged more for insurance. This is not to say insurance companies don't take age into account.
"The older you get the more dangerous you become on the roads," says Paul Moloney, head of corporate affairs at Axa Insurance. For medical reasons - eyesight, hearing and reaction times - older people have a higher claims frequency. They also tend to only drive locally, so they might not have the experience of motorway driving.
"Insurance companies don't like to take on new policies from people over the age of 70," he adds.
Axa begins increasing premiums because of the age factor after 60 years of age and again after 70 years of age. "These would be small percentage increases," Moloney says, "and nothing in the regions of increases for younger drivers."
Nobody will be refused insurance based on age - young or old. Because insurance is mandatory, if you are denied a quote by five separate insurance companies you are entitled to be given insurance by the first company you asked, even if the cost is outrageous.
"We had a guy a couple of years ago in Co Clare. He was 102 and still driving. Once you've got a current driving licence you're entitled to drive," Moloney adds.
Hibernian insurance company increases premiums by 5 per cent when you turn 75 and by 10 per cent at 80. Group communications manager, Kela O'Riordan, believes in a certain amount of trust when insuring older drivers. "We assume people will use their heads and if their eyesight is gone they will stop driving."
But it is not as haphazard as that. Once you hit 60 years of age your licence cannot be renewed beyond the age of 70.
If you are over 70 you cannot apply for a 10-year licence, but may apply for a one- or three-year licence subject to medical certification by a doctor.
One major problem is that there is no ongoing training for drivers. The driving test was introduced in 1964 and up to that time one could buy a licence to drive any vehicle over the counter in any Garda station. The result is that many drivers in their fifties and certainly in their sixties have never sat a driving test and may never have possessed a copy of the rules of the road.
Nowadays you must undergo a driver theory test to obtain a provisional licence and, of course, a driving test in each category before you are issued with a full licence. This is not to say that older drivers are necessarily less careful or should be taken off the road.
Murray says measures should be taken to encourage older people to keep driving. "For example, it would be a good idea to increase the size of road signs. This would help reduce accidents for younger people as well as older people. Why do we say the person has to stop, why not say adapt."
