Our "Save the Cars” petition will draw to a close in November, approaching 8,000 signatures. It will be delivered to Minister Michael D’Arcy, Minister of State for Financial Services & Insurance, to keep up the pressure, with our ongoing campaign to Save the Cars and bring pressure on insurance companies to provide competitive insurance for 10+ year old cars.
During this campaign, Autobiz has highlighted how insurance practices are restricting mobility, especially in rural areas, job being lost and businesses closing in the garage sector and also the huge impact on vehicle values, as well as a negative environmental impact.
Coupled with the petition, Autobiz also engaged in many other lobbying and publicity activities to highlight this key issue. This included the creation of a Facebook page that gathered thousands more signitures. In July, we arranged an information meeting in Buswells for TD’s and Senators, which resulted in many questions being raised in the Dail, both at Taoiseach question time and also written submissions by TD’s.
Autobiz also met with Minister D’arcy and the Minister agreed to take the concerns raised to Mr. Kevin Thompson, Insurance Ireland’s CEO.
The Save the Cars campaign has certainly achieved its initial objective of raising political and public awareness and while the petition is closing, our campaign will continue. We would like to thank everyone who supported this petition and reassure them that Autobiz will continue to campaign strongly on this key issue.
While investigating the insurance market, we have been drawn into the wider issues within the insurance sector that are of genuine concern to the automotive aftermarket on many levels.
These are mainly down to a total lack of transparency in the sector, a factor that makes it impossible to bring insurance companies to task on rising premiums, claim payouts and distribution of profits.
To keep the Insurance companies in check, we believe there needs to be more consumer oversight in this sector. Autobiz, along with other group campaigning on this issue, agree that there can be no proper oversight, without the data being scrutinised by a consumer body.
To this end our campaign will now focus on some key issues:
- Lobbying politicians to ensure that the National Claims Information Database, is not just overseen by the Central Bank, (as is currently the case) but also overseen by an organisation with consumer interests at heart, such as the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB). This we see as crucial for transparency and fairness.
- We have also written to the Central Bank to request information on insurance claims that were previously available through the "Blue Book” and we will continue to campaign for public access to this vital information.
- We will continue to put pressure on ministers and TDs to address the issue of rising premiums and highlight the impact this is having on both motorists and the motor trade.
At present the insurance market is too much of a closed shop in Ireland and it is vital that the sector becomes more transparent and accountable.
Our “Save the Cars” petition will draw to a close in November, but the campaign to Save the Cars and bring pressure on insurance companies to provide competitive insurance for 10+ year old cars continues
Cars 10 years and older are being scrapped at an alarming rate, as the graph above shows, with the projected scrappage in 2018 of a whopping 139,308 vehicles
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