Insurers could do ‘hell of a lot more’

HIGHLY profitable motor insurance companies could do “a hell of a lot more” to lower premiums for drivers, Transport Minister Martin Cullen has said.

Mr Cullen told the Oireachtas Enterprise and Small Business Committee yesterday that the sector was a highly profitable one, dominated by five companies.

Motor insurers made profits of €329 million last year, according to figures from the Financial Regulator.

The insurers argue that they are passing on a substantial portion of these profits to drivers in the shape of lower premiums which, they say, have fallen to 1999 levels.

But yesterday, Mr Cullen said: “In my view, they could do a hell of a lot more in reductions of premiums.” The companies were making sufficient profit to offer “much better packages” to drivers, he added.

Mr Cullen also dismissed criticism that his department was unwilling to give the National Safety Council the resources it required.

Council chairman Eddie Shaw recently told two Oireachtas committees that Government road safety policy had failed. He criticised the lack of investment by Government, indicating that the council had difficulties planning its advertising campaigns because it never knew how much State funding it would receive. The acting chief executive of the council, Alan Richardson, subsequently made similar comments to this newspaper.

But Mr Cullen said anything the council asked for, it received. Asked if this meant he had no problem supplying funding to the council, he replied: “Absolutely. There is no issue.”

Meanwhile, Mr Cullen confirmed that just 32 additional officers would be added to the Garda Traffic Corps this year, increasing its strength from 531 to 563. But the corps would be increased in size to 1,200 by 2008, he said.

He could not provide figures on the number of working speed cameras on the country’s roads, saying this was a matter for the Department of Justice.

Junior Minister at the Department of Transport, Ivor Callely, told the committee that he had received an interim report on the National Car Testing (NCT) system.

He planned on bringing forward amendments to the system to combat the ‘boy-racer’ phenomenon, he said.

Following the committee meeting, Mr Callely explained that these amendments would effectively ban certain modifications that ‘boy-racers’ make to their cars.

Mr Callely expects to announce the new measures by January 1.