While the Garda has repeatedly pointed to significant levels of enforcement on the roads of the Republic, it has now emerged there has been a very large increase in the number of uninsured drivers on the roads.
The Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland (MIBI) said last year alone the number of uninsured drivers increased by 13,626, meaning 187,803 drivers were uninsured on the roads, or about 1 in 12 drivers. And in the short period since 2020, there were not an additional 32,000 uninsured drivers on the roads of the Republic.
The MIBI is an insurance industry-backed agency that victims of road traffic crashes can sue of the driver involved in their crash was uninsured and was never traced. A number of recent high profile cases involving cyclists involved them suing the MIBI, including a cyclist in Dublin whose compensation was reduced by 20 per cent because she was not wearing a helmet at the time.
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MIBI can work out the number of uninsured driver by comparing the number of vehicles taxed to be on the roads with the number of insurance policies on issue. Under Irish law, the Garda can seize an uninsured car and the driver can be prosecuted, with penalties including penalty points and fines.
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"Clearly not enough is being done to discourage uninsured driving in this country," David Fitzgerald, chief executive of the MIBI said, adding if current trends continued there would be 200,000 uninsured drivers on Irish roads in the next 12 to 18 months.
"Every single time a person drives a vehicle without insurance they are breaking the law. Yet the number of uninsured vehicles continues to rise. Within the last two years, the number of private vehicles being driven illegally without insurance has grown by more than 32,000. That is a really, really significant increase and should be a cause of concern to anyone who is interested in the rule of law and the safety of Irish roads."
MIBI called for the Garda to use the new centralised Irish motor insurance database system through its automatic number plate recognition systems.
“This will allow uninsured drivers to be simply and quickly identified without having to even be stopped and pulled over,” said Fitzgerald. “It enables gardaí to check vehicles on the road without even leaving their cars. They can also use their mobility devices to quickly check the insurance status of vehicles and drivers, thus speeding up the validation process in frontline operations.”
However, legislation allowing the Garda to what the MIBI is calling for was still making its way through the houses of the Oireachtas, with Fitzgerald saying it would still be some time before that level of enforcement was possible.
