Uninsured cost €67m last year

The Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) paid out a record €67 million last year in compensation following crashes involving uninsured drivers.

This is a third higher than the average of roughly €50 million per annum paid out by the MIBI.

Bureau chief executive John Casey said that settling a number of long-standing "mega cases" of more than €1 million contributed to the record payout.

He said while the amount paid out last year was significantly higher, the number of domestic cases, at 2,298, was in line with recent years.

Another 953 cases involving a collision in Ireland with foreign registered vehicles were also settled. The final category is Irish registered involved with a crash in another EU country, many of which were lorries on French and German roads. There were 490 payouts in this category.

Mr Casey said the cost of meeting these claims was adding an extra €45 to the insurance premium for every driver every year.

Ireland continues to have one of the highest rates of uninsured driving in the EU, with almost 6 per cent, or 100,000 motorists having no insurance. In most countries the rate of uninsured driving is roughly 2 per cent.

Driving without insurance is a criminal offence and they also get two penalty points. More than 11,000 vehicles were seized by gardaí last year where the driver had no tax or insurance but there is no data available for the numbers prosecuted just for uninsured driving.

Every case that MIBI settles for compensation is handed over to Mason Hayes and Curran, a law firm specialising in debt recovery, to try and recoup some of the cost from the uninsured driver.