The cost of motor insurance to the public and to businesses is set to rise again by 25% across the board in 2016 according to Insurance Ireland today and the new Government will have to step in and tackle this situation which is getting out of hand.
Private motorists will be paying on average 300 Euro more for their policies in 2016 than they were two years ago according to today’s figures, but the situation for small businesses is even more serious and small hauliers and operators with a small fleet of vehicles are being hammered by these huge increases. The insurance companies must be called in and questioned on why the level of increases are so severe. We are coming to a stage where it is almost impossible for any young person to afford to get insurance to drive a car and many businesses are struggling to pay these huge increases”
We have also to look at the level of payouts by our courts for claims. It was recently shown that the level of claims here in Ireland is over double what they are in other countries. 80% of motor injury claims in Ireland are for whiplash and the average payout here is 15,000 Euro while in the UK it’s 5,000 Euro and on the continent the payout is 2,000 Euro. This situation just cannot be allowed to continue.