Insurance industry under fire from RSA

THE ROAD Safety Authority (RSA) has accused the insurance industry of offering policies to dangerously modified vehicles without first inspecting the vehicles, as well as not being strict enough on banned motorists. In a strongly worded broadside, RSA chief executive Noel Brett also insisted companies “should deal seriously with people who have large numbers of penalty points”.

In a further criticism, Brett said the insurance companies should be stricter on motorists who have been banned under drink-driving legislation, “and not just sell the [insurance] quote”. Brett said he was not asking insurance companies to take on the role of the gardaí, but he said they could do more “in making it more difficult for non-compliant drivers or those who use vehicles that are simply unroadworthy and dangerous”.

Brett also said insurance companies “could do more” in the commercial sector, warning that “trucks that do not have current commercial roadworthiness certificates should not be insured”. Over the coming, months the RSA would “engage more robustly”, he warned.

Chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) Mike Kemp was not available to comment at the time of writing.

Individual companies were also recently criticised by senior gardaí for offering insurance policies covering out-of-state registered vehicles. On that occasion, Kemp told The Irish Times such policies could be offered by Irish companies authorised to operate in the country which issued the registration plate, as the risk was deemed to be in that country. He added that the insurance companies were not enforcers of the rules regarding import taxes.

Now, however, the RSA has taken issue with that stance, and last week Brett told the Oireachtas Committee on Transport he wanted to single out “the motor insurance sector which can do a lot more to support the national road safety and enforcement effort”.

“I am talking, for example, about being more strict in the case of dangerously modified vehicles. They should not just keep offering insurance policies but go out and check a number of the vehicles in question,” he maintained.