If you are looking for car insurance for a car that is not registered in Ireland, i.e. a car that does not have an Irish licence plate you will not find it in Ireland.
A few years ago when I was a student here it was possible to bring a car to Ireland and insurance it here with a local insurance company, for some reason this has stopped.
I tried to get car insurance for a non-Irish car last year and found that there is no insurance company now offering this. I found it strange and slightly annoying so I dug a little to see what had happened.
It appears that the Irish police have asked the insurance companies now to insure any non Irish registered cars. This is not law, but it seems like the insurance companies instead of acting like businesses are acting like agents to the state. The car insurance industry is turning away business, I would how their shareholders view this bit of compliance?
You Can Still Get Insurance
It is possible to get car insurance for a car that is not on an Irish plate, however you have to buy it elsewhere and of course it is much more expensive. This was my solution as I spent a lot of time in Ireland and in the UK. There are a few companies in the UK who will insure you without any issue for Ireland and the UK.
However getting insurance for your car if you travel a lot around Europe if almost impossible, unless you are willing to pay several thousand sterling, something I could not justify. It does seem odd now that we have cross boarder trading through so much of Europe that car insurance does not allow us to drive anywhere and still be fully covered; as I understand it the current situation compels the insurance companies to cover all vehicles when abroad but outside of their time limits the insurance is then only third party.
Car Insurance for Foreign Reg Cars
So now we have the situation where people come from the UK to Ireland to work or study for periods and cannot get car insurance here. It makes me wonder if there are more cars driving around with no or very limited insurance.
And why would insurance companies just have this type of agreement with the police? Do you know of any better solution to this problem?
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- Irish Postal Service is Sh*t
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- Irish Censorship
- Bloody Irish Driving!
