COUNTY Limerick politician Richard O’Donoghue has called on the government to tackle insurance fraud to make sure con artists are held accountable for their crimes.
Speaking in the Dáil, the Independent Ireland TD hit out that insurance fraud is being paid for by others trying to get insured.
“Let us say a person is trying to insure their vehicle in Limerick, Tipperary, Cork, or Clare,” Deputy O’Donoghue told the Dáil. “If we look at the same vehicle across the different counties, it seems to be the insurance rates are higher where the cities are.”
Deputy O’Donoghue said he carried out a “small synopsis” researching insurance prices “with a Toyota Corolla”.
“We took the same vehicle with a 1.4 litre petrol engine and looked for insurance for the same person across all the sectors. There was a difference of €900 in Tipperary, €400 in Cork, and €700 in Clare,” he revealed.
“It is the same vehicle but in different counties. The companies use geographic information systems to see how many claims are made in each individual county, but they work on the basis of the whole county,” he said.
According to Deputy O’Donoghue, the number of claims being made by the same people, families, or groups, in the one area have not been curtailed by the insurance companies. He called for urgent action to target people making fraudulent claims.
“Looking at it from an insurance fraud perspective, a family and their wider relations could have made multiple insurance claims and the people of their county are now paying for them because a computer system says there are extra claims in the area. That is fraud,” he claimed.
“If somebody has an accident, that is fine, but where someone claiming for an accident has had 10 or 12 accidents before, that is a problem.
“If people have one, that is fine. They may have two. If they have three, questions should be asked. If there are multiple claims, the government and the authorities need to target those people and put them on a computer system to see if their claims are related or connected to others to save the people who are trying to get on the insurance ladder in these counties money.”
In response, Minister of State at the Department of Transport, Seán Canney, explained that a new action plan features 10 priority actions focused on areas where the greatest impact on cost and availability can be achieved.
“They include a focus on transparency in the sector, legal reform, strengthening the powers and remit of the Injuries Resolution Board, a feasibility study on a cap for certain categories of personal injuries awards and measures to reduce both insurance fraud and the number of uninsured drivers,” he said.