Dáil Éireann Debate, Thursday - 24 January 2019
94. Deputy Aindrias Moynihan asked the Minister for Finance the number of insurance companies that offer car insurance here; the number that are non-Irish companies; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [3687/19]
View answerFor the purpose of this reply, my officials consulted with the Central Bank regarding the information being sought by the Deputy.
The Central Bank has advised that the names of all insurance undertakings with permission to operate in the Irish market whether authorised by the Central Bank or elsewhere in the EU are set out in a register which is publicly available at:
http://registers.centralbank.ie/DownloadsPage.aspx.
The Central Bank has indicated that, as per the registers published on 14 January 2019, there are 34 Irish insurance undertakings (with their head office in Ireland) which are authorised to provide motor insurance; and there are 11 undertakings that are operating on a Freedom of Establishment basis (branch basis), that are similarly authorised. It should be noted that just because an insurer is authorised to provide this type of insurance does not mean it is currently doing so. It has also indicated that there are 874 non-life Freedom of Service companies on the register, however the Bank is not in a position to tell me how many of these companies are actively selling motor insurance in the Irish Market. This is because many such companies register and participate only for a limited time in the Irish Market, or never participate at all.
Consequently in order to be as helpful as possible, I am attaching a link below to the membership list of the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI). This provides a much clearer profile of the make-up of the motor insurance industry in Ireland because under Section 78 of the Road Traffic Act, all motor insurance undertakings wishing to do business in Ireland are required to become a member of this body in order that the EU requirement of compensating victims of accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles can be met.
https://www.mibi.ie/_fileupload/Member%20list/1_1%20MIBI%20Members%20List%20-%20Jan%202019.pdf.
When looking at the membership list, the Deputy will note that the freedom of services undertakings are marked by a reference to “FOS” in the company code field of the table. In this list (January 2019) there are 18 Irish undertakings and 22 FOS undertakings. In addition, there are six Lloyd’s syndicates operating through brokers. It should be noted that these numbers will change as undertakings enter and exit the Irish market from time to time.
