Claims caused by uninsured and untraced vehicles remain worryingly high. The MIBI remain committed to working with key Government and Industry stakeholders to combat this problem, whilst compensating the victims of uninsured drivers.
The raised level of motor insurance claims relating to uninsured or untraced drivers witnessed in 2016 was sustained during 2017, according to new figures released by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI). A total of 2,758 claims were received by the MIBI last year.
This represents a jump of 242 more claims than were received in 2015 when a total of 2,516 claims were submitted. However there was a marginal 2% decrease in received claims between 2017 and 2016, when a total of 2,802 claims were made.
The largest number of claims came from Dublin with 1,140 claims arising in the capital. This accounted for 41% of all MIBI claims last year. The number of Dublin claims has also grown year to year, with 2017 seeing a 1% increase compared to the 1,129 received in 2016, while in 2015 a total of 1,074 Dublin claims had been raised.
Cork had the second highest number of claims, although the 212 received in 2017 was lower than both the 2016 figure (243) and the 2015 total (213). Limerick accounted for the third highest quantity with 156 claims submitted in 2017 (152 in 2016 and 155 in 2015).
While the national claim figures were broadly similar between 2016 and 2017, some significant regional variations did arise on a proportional basis. Leitrim had the highest percentage increase in the number of claims (70%), followed by Roscommon (60%), Carlow (43%) and Monaghan (42%). The largest percentage drop in claims came in Kilkenny (-39%), followed by Offaly (-34%) and then Wicklow (-33%).
The MIBI is a not for profit organisation which was established to compensate victims of road traffic accidents caused by uninsured and unidentified vehicles.
Speaking about the figures, David Fitzgerald, Chief Executive of the MIBI said, “In 2016 we witnessed a significant step up in the number of claims the MIBI receives and that level was sustained in 2017. When you compare the current level of claims to the approximately 2,400 to 2,500 claims range we experienced in the years up to and including 2015, you can see there has been a marked increase.
“There are a number of factors behind this increase, including the number of uninsured drivers operating on Irish roads. As the MIBI outlined in late 2016, at that time there were over 151,000 uninsured private vehicles in the Republic of Ireland. We are continuing to work with the Gardaí, the State and the rest of the motor insurance industry to bring forward measures that will help combat this problem.
“The MIBI has also outlined our determination to tackle fraudulent claims. We estimate 1 in 8 of all claims we receive are suspicious. As we detailed in our Fighting Fraud strategy we are now making it much more difficult for claims of this type to succeed and we believe this more aggressive approach will lead to the decline in bogus claims over time, reducing the overall number of claims received in future,” Mr. Fitzgerald concluded.
Note:
Please see below the full list of claim statistics, covering 2017, 2016 and 2015. The table also details the percentage change between 2016 and 2017 as well as 2015 and 2017. The overall national figures are provided as well as the county by county breakdown.
| County | 2017 Claims | 2016 Claims | 2015 Claims | Change between 2016 and 2017 | % Change between 2016 and 2017 | Change between 2015 and 2017 | %Change between 2015 and 2017 |
| Carlow | 33 | 23 | 16 | 10 | 43% | 17 | 106% |
| Cavan | 49 | 42 | 35 | 7 | 17% | 14 | 40% |
| Clare | 41 | 38 | 36 | 3 | 8% | 5 | 14% |
| Cork | 212 | 243 | 213 | -31 | -13% | -1 | -1% |
| Donegal | 77 | 81 | 77 | -4 | -5% | 0 | 0% |
| Dublin | 1140 | 1129 | 1074 | 11 | 1% | 66 | 6% |
| Galway | 130 | 155 | 128 | -25 | -16% | 2 | 2% |
| Kerry | 62 | 62 | 41 | 0 | 0% | 21 | 51% |
| Kildare | 123 | 116 | 111 | 7 | 6% | 12 | 11% |
| Kilkenny | 17 | 28 | 18 | -11 | -39% | -1 | -6% |
| Laois | 34 | 30 | 31 | 4 | 13% | 3 | 10% |
| Leitrim | 17 | 10 | 11 | 7 | 70% | 6 | 55% |
| Limerick | 156 | 152 | 155 | 4 | 3% | 1 | 1% |
| Longford | 30 | 33 | 13 | -3 | -9% | 17 | 131% |
| Louth | 127 | 119 | 121 | 8 | 7% | 6 | 5% |
| Mayo | 47 | 44 | 31 | 3 | 7% | 16 | 52% |
| Meath | 100 | 117 | 87 | -17 | -15% | 13 | 15% |
| Monaghan | 37 | 26 | 27 | 11 | 42% | 10 | 37% |
| Offaly | 21 | 32 | 24 | -11 | 34% | -3 | -13% |
| Roscommon | 24 | 15 | 17 | 9 | 60% | 7 | 41% |
| Sligo | 31 | 25 | 16 | 6 | 24% | 15 | 94% |
| Tipperary | 57 | 66 | 64 | -9 | -14% | -7 | -11% |
| Waterford | 56 | 42 | 50 | 14 | 33% | 6 | 12% |
| Westmeath | 45 | 41 | 32 | 4 | 10% | 13 | 41% |
| Wexford | 48 | 56 | 40 | -8 | -14% | 8 | 20% |
| Wicklow | 44 | 66 | 37 | -22 | -33% | 7 | 19% |
| Not Recorded | 0 | 11 | 11 | -11 | -100% | -11 | 100% |
| TOTAL | 2758 | 2802 | 2516 | -44 | -2% | 242 | 10% |