Madam, - A modest proposal. Since car insurance is a statutory requirement, the Government of the day has an obligation to see that it continues to fill the original need, and in the most efficient way. The "need", of course, is to ensure that all road users are compensated for involuntary losses incurred on public roads. Over the years, the need seems to have expanded to include providing a livelihood for a wide range of people who have suffered no loss - lawyers, insurance companies and the like, which simply increases the cost of insurance without any discernable benefit to the driver or other injured parties.
At present, motorists can choose between comprehensive and third party, fire and theft insurance. Why not broaden the choice? Why can't they choose "legal-free" insurance, under which drivers, when taking out insurance, could opt to have any claims adjudicated by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB), without the assistance of any member of the legal profession? Claimants could perhaps be allowed one expert witness, at their own expense, but no wigs and gowns. Drivers who want to take their claims further and have them adjudicated in the courts could still do so, at their own expense. Those who want to insure against the cost of doing so would be free to continue paying the current level of premiums.
The costs of the PIAB would naturally have to be included in drivers' insurance premiums, but this would be much less than the added legal and other costs which drivers are now forced to carry. And if the insurance companies feel that this would be far too radical a change to the rules of the game, they should be invited to withdraw from the business, and leave it to the PIAB.
The same approach might usefully be extended to apply to all third party insurance. - Yours, etc.,
MICHAEL BOYLE, Butterfield Drive, Rathfarnham, Dublin 14.