Cheaper car insurance for women ‘safe’

WOMEN’S right to cheaper car insurance than men is safe after the Government decided not to implement the European gender directive in full.

Tánaiste Michael McDowell confirmed the Government had taken on board the advice of the Working Group on Insurance-related Issues in the gender directive.

The group’s report recommends that certain types of policy still be calculated on risk even though this discriminates between men and women.

This includes policies for life assurance, payment protection, critical illness cover and motor insurance.

The Tánaiste said insurance companies would enjoy an exemption from this aspect of the gender directive.

“This decision means that premiums and benefits may continue to reflect risk. For example, women may continue to benefit from lower motor insurance premiums,” he explained.

The Irish Insurance Federation has welcomed the decision as a victory for common sense.

Its regulation and planning manager, Paul McDonnell, said the alternatives tabled would have created costs that would ultimately have been passed on to customers.

“The Government has pretty much listened to what we said. It could have decided to implement the directive in full without any exemptions, which would have been very bad.

“The other option would have been to make companies carry out a major bureaucratic exercise to extensively research every risk in order to justify each exemption.

“It was felt this would have been so costly it would have been worse than implementing the directive in full,” he said.

The 14-person working group met four times last year to analyse what effects the directive would have on insurance premiums.

Its report has been published by the Department of Justice.