Gardaí urged to ‘get tough’ over failure to register insurance details of thousands of vehicles

Detailed summary

Businesses, motor traders failed to upload details for almost 10,000 cars, lorries, buses, coaches, delivery and food trucks ...

Insurance Ireland has called on An Garda Síochána to “get tough” with businesses and motor traders who have failed to register the insurance details of thousands of vehicles and drivers with a State-supported motor insurance database.

Legislation came into effect in November 2023 requiring fleet owners and motor traders to upload all such information to the National Fleet Database (NFD), which is available to road traffic policing units on their mobility devices at roadside checkpoints.

However, while 440,500 vehicles are listed on the database, 9,851 fleet or motor trader policies “are yet to provide vehicle details for the NFD”, according to Minister of State for Transport Seán Canney.

In a parliamentary reply to Fine Gael TD Emer Currie, Canney said fleet owners and motor traders are responsible for adding details to the NFD and they could face fines of up to €500 per vehicle.

The Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland has responsibility for the fleet database and for the overall Irish Motor Insurance Database (IMID). According to information it supplied to the Minister, driver numbers are missing for almost 25,000 named drivers, despite being a legal requirement since March 2025. Every motorist has a unique driver number on their licence which they keep for life.

Insurance Ireland chief executive Moyagh Murdock said getting fleet owners to comply “is down to enforcement at this point”. The organisation represents the insurance industry.

“I know the early days were probably a softly, softly approach to really familiarise everybody with it but there comes a point when they [gardaí] have to just get tough with them,” she said.

The Minster said fleet vehicles include buses, coaches, cars sold in garages, delivery vans, hire cars, construction vehicles, utility and service vehicles “as well as those operated by retailers, service providers, food and takeaway delivery operations, semi-State organisations” and individuals owning multiple vehicles.

Murdock said “we would definitely…

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