Donegal Councillor Patrick McGowan calls on The Dail to consider an Australian car insurance model where the car registration includes compulsory third party insurance costing around €500.
Full comprehensive can be added by drivers in case of large claims following a collision.
He says “the Goverment insist on all vehicles having insurance but are doing nothing to ensure accessible at an affordability price.”
This was reiterated by Michael McGrath, the Fianna Fáil Spokesperson on Finance.
McGrath says “providing an update on how the Government has failed to deal with the motor insurance crisis is cold comfort to motorists who are seeing their premiums continuing to rise.”
Deputy McGrath was commenting following the publication of the Quarter 1 Update on the Report on the Cost of Motor Insurance.
“The Minister would like motorists to believe that this is an issue that emerged over the past 12 months, but it goes much deeper than that.
“Over the past three years, premiums have risen by 11% in 2014, 30% in 2015 and a further 12% in 2016, and the government has failed to take decisive action to stem the rises that are placing families in severe financial difficulty.
“Throughout this period, Fianna Fáil has consistently highlighted the need for action, at both policy and legislative levels, from the Government.
“While we extracted recognition from Fine Gael last summer that action was required, and obtained the commitment to establishing to Working Group on the Cost of Motor Insurance, the pace of action has not matched the seriousness of the crisis.
“It took a further six months, until January 2017, for the Government to bring forward their plan to tackle the issue.
“However, too many of the recommendations are not planned or expected to be implemented for a number of months and even into 2018.
“Despite no discernible increase in the national average premium, the fact remains that there are still too many people being asked to pay more and more for their motor insurance, with increases of 30 or 40% in premium costs being reported to me as late as last week.
“The Government need to get their priorities right, and urgently work to complete all the recommendations as quickly as possible and not wait until later this year or 2018,” concluded McGrath.
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