Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey, reports the Irish Times, has said he will introduce new legislation forcing motor insurance companies to hand over all their records on car write-offs to stop them reappearing on the roads, if they refuse to do so voluntarily.

The Irish Insurance Federation (IIF) has said insurance companies are willing to forward this data to the Department of Transport voluntarily, and has suggested handing it over every three months. A spokeswoman for the department said it would use the insurers’ data to cross-check it against the state vehicle register, the National Vehicle Driver File (NVDF) to ‘flag’ any write-offs and notify unsuspecting vehicle owners.

Insurers are not obliged to pass write-off information to the department or the public, and there is no complete state register on write-offs. The IIF has, until recently, refused to provide it, saying insurers’ records are not fully complete. However, following an investigation, led by the RSA, which found that vehicles classified as total write-offs and un-roadworthy were being repaired and returned to the roads, the IIF has agreed to make this information available…

Irish Times