Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 18 Dec 1990

Vol. 404 No. 1

Written Answers. - Motor Insurance Cover.

Emmet Stagg

Ceist:

42 Mr. Stagg asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce if his attention has been drawn to the widespread practice among insurance companies of refusing policies or quotations to persons on the grounds that their names or addresses are suggestive of membership of the travelling community; if he proposes to take any action in this regard; and if he will make a statement on the matter.

Minister for Industry and Commerce (Mr. O'Malley)

I would like to remind the Deputy of what I have said on numerous occasions in this House, that, my main and indeed statutory duty as the insurance supervisory authority, is to ensure that insurance companies meet their statutory reserve and solvency requirements. In this regard I must respect the right of insurers to accept or reject risks in the light of their underwriting experience. There is no legal obligation on any insurer to quote in respect of any risk or to quote in any particular manner or at any particular premium and I cannot compel them to do so. I am not responsible for the day to day operations of insurers or the exercise of business acumen on their behalf.

However, I am aware that insurers are sometimes reluctant to offer quotations for certain risks. I would point out such reluctance usually has a reason behind it. It may be that an insurer has had a poor claims experience on a particular risk or has had difficulties with a policy in the past, or perhaps the poor performance of a company's account in a general area of cover may affect a company's attitude to quoting for any type of risk in this same area. Insurers, however, are generally willing to quote for what they would term reasonable risks.

I am conscious of the difficulties which problems in obtaining insurance cover can cause. Because of these difficulties and the awareness of the problems they cause, arrangements exist with the insurance industry to assist in such cases.

In the case of motor insurance there is, of course, a legal obligation on all motorists under the Road Traffic Acts to have minimum third party insurance — thus it is essential that some facility exists to help those who experience, for whatever reasons, difficulty in obtaining such cover. To this extent there is an agreement with the insurance industry for dealing with cases of inability to obtain motor insurance through a body called the declined cases committee. This committee, established under the declined cases agreement, is comprised of representatives of the authorised motor insurance companies. It examines cases referred to it by my Department, which have been declined by five or more motor insurance companies and nominates one of the companies to quote for the risk involved. Before a case can be submitted to this committee for consideration, it is necessary to approach and obtain written refusals from five motor insurance companies. These should then be forwarded to the insurance section of my Department indicating the order in which the insurers were approached together with details of any previous insurance held in the last three years. It should then be possible to have the necessary cover arranged. This agreement came into effect in June 1981 and since then has had an almost 100 per cent success rate.