New motor insurance legislation comes into effect

New legislation has today come into effect, which which now requires motorists to provide their driver number, and those of any named drivers, to their vehicle insurer when taking out motor insurance policies.

Effective from today, 31st March, the new legislation also requires all insurers, and intermediaries acting on their behalf, to ensure driver number data is collected by them and validated against the Department of Transport’s National Vehicle and Driver File.

This must be done prior to the issue of a policy of motor insurance, and the data must subsequently be transferred to the Irish Motor Insurance Database (IMID).

Insurers and intermediaries acting on their behalf can apply to the Department of Transport for access to the driver number validation service and, once approved, will sign up to a data sharing agreement.

The driver number can be found in section 4(d) of an Irish driver licence or learner permit.

Earlier this year Gardaí were granted access to the IMID through their mobility devices, and can currently detect drivers operating without insurance on Irish roads. The key aim of this database is to remove uninsured drivers from the roads.

From today, validated driver numbers are also available to Garda members at the roadside.