AA Ireland have said the Gardaí need better tools available to tackle motor insurance fraud as the current system is “worse than useless.”
The company’s call comes as a special Oireachtas Committee is investigating the current rise in motor insurance premiums.
The AA’s Conor Faughnan told the committee that the Gardaí need better resources, such as number plate recognition, to recognise uninsured drivers.
Mr Faughnan further explained: “At the moment, we’re still using a paper windscreen disc to decide whether a car is insured or not, and that actually facilitates fraud, it doesn’t prevent it.”
“The only equipment we give our gardaí to check whether a car is insured or not is a torch to shine on the disc. And that is literally worse than useless.”