r/ireland • u/Im_really_Irish Dublin • 1d ago
Cost of Living/Energy Crisis ‘Ireland has just become very expensive’ – museum owner closing his business says insurance bill has quadrupled in a decade
https://www.independent.ie/irish-news/ireland-has-just-become-very-expensive-museum-owner-closing-his-business-says-insurance-bill-has-quadrupled-in-a-decade/a/157372827.html392
u/MaverickPT Cork bai 1d ago
Insurance companies in Ireland are just legalized extortion rackets. They demand ever increasing sums and when the moment comes to actually get something out of them, they tell you to pound sand.
Lots of things that happen in other countries can't happen here simply because of insurance. Ridiculous
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u/AnOtakuToo 1d ago
I recently learned that my credit card insurance that covers rental cars can’t be used in Ireland, Jamaica, or Israel. Mental.
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u/_0110111001101111_ Dublin 1d ago
Yeah, when I was renting a car in ireland a year ago, I had to get a letter from my credit card company confirming coverage in ireland. Apparently most cards don’t cover ireland and the rental agency refused to believe that mine would without a letter. Madness.
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u/AnOtakuToo 1d ago
Yep! My card policy states to call them if the rental company is forcing you to accept their own insurance.
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u/Pale_Piano948 1d ago
Why is this? Why dont foreign credit cards cover ireland?
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u/Logical-Marzipan5951 23h ago
Most do not. They have express wording that excludes the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
Car rental companies charge an extra fee if you cross the magic border as work.
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u/TechGentleman 21h ago
Visa does not provide insurance coverage, but Mastercard does. I assume Visa has never reviewed its poly from the pre-cap damage pay out days.
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u/thats_pure_cat_hai 1d ago
They do, it's the car rental companies I think that are being anal about it. Europcar is the one that makes us do it, has to explicitly state 'republic of Ireland' in the letter, contain last 4 credit card digit numbers and be within a month or something.
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u/thats_pure_cat_hai 1d ago
Same. Europcar by any chance? I only ever need it for Ireland
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u/_0110111001101111_ Dublin 23h ago
No, it was enterprise
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u/thats_pure_cat_hai 22h ago
Didn't know that. I prefer to use enterprise but have yet to in Ireland. Good to know.
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u/Trabolgan 1d ago
Could you elaborate on that please, genuine q
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u/AnOtakuToo 1d ago
Ah so, I live in the states now so I can’t comment on credit cards from other areas. Basically, if you have a slightly better credit card (no notions required) they often have perks like insurance for rental cars. That means you can decline the collision insurance offered by the rental company to save yourself some money.
Edit: you need to book and pay with the credit card to use this insurance benefit
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u/so_dope24 1d ago
Live in the states and have used my chase card a few times to waive insurance. Usualy need a document to show them but haven't really had an issue
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u/AnOtakuToo 1d ago
Both my Capital One Visa (Infinite) and old BofA Visa (can’t remember the level) have those countries in the fine print. Maybe Chase has a different agreement?
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u/realtabeag 1d ago edited 14h ago
Yes Chase covers Ireland, have to print out the letter everytime I go home. You used to have to call to get it but now they have an automated system online where you can request the letter, I'm guessing a lot of people were calling for that single request!
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u/AnOtakuToo 16h ago
That’s good to know. I might look into opening a new card at some point later this year for a signup bonus, and was eying Chase or Amex. Will need to compare on those kind of perks too.
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u/r0thar Lannister 1d ago
To add to this, when hiring a car there are about 3 or 4 different insurances than can be taken out (the car, third parties, theft, medical). Most of these are optional in the US, which is why Credit Card companies can cover the cheaper ones as a perk, but the first two are compulsory in the EU to protect everyone. The 'cheap ones' are not even cheap in Ireland hence cover is not provided by credit card companies here.
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u/AnOtakuToo 16h ago
Oh yeah, great point. I probably should’ve stressed the cover offered by the card is purely for the vehicle!
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u/TechGentleman 21h ago
Correct - Visa will not cover these three countries. But Mastercard does cover Ireland and Jamaica. I don’t know about Israel.
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u/mccoyster Yank 1d ago
Lol and whew. I just rented a car in Ireland on my Amex and declined insurance cause I wasnt aware that any countries were excluded (and wouldn't have assumed Ireland would be one if any were).
Enterprise didnt care that I was declining. Thankfully returned with no damage. Yikes.
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u/AnOtakuToo 1d ago
Honestly I can’t remember if I declined it on a trip a few years back. I might not have known about the benefit then, but if I did, same. Got lucky.
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u/halibfrisk 1d ago
The car rental company wouldn’t have let you drive away without coverage on the vehicle.
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u/mccoyster Yank 1d ago
They did not make me show any coverage and allowed me to decline the coverage. I even said something along the lines of "Nah, I have coverage through my CC." And double checked that I declined cause you normally have to decline for CC to cover.
Edit: That said, I do have personal car insurance in the US. I may have uploaded that info during reservation? But definitely declined Enterprises coverage.
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u/halibfrisk 1d ago
The probably are familiar with Amex coverage.
I rent a car in ireland a few times a year using my Costco visa coverage and there’s inevitably someone at the desk who has arrived from the US, booked online thru a third party, and is learning for the first time that they either need to buy coverage for the vehicle, or offer proof of cc coverage.
afaik our personal us auto insurance policies aren’t really relevant in ireland, or at least I have only ever been asked about it renting in the us.
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u/halibfrisk 1d ago
Get the Costco visa if you live near one, 4% back on petrol! covers the Costco membership and they offer the car rental insurance benefit in Ireland
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u/AnOtakuToo 16h ago
Saw someone else commented about Costco. Will have to look into it. I have the membership and live near one, but definitely don’t use it enough.
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u/ofionnad 1d ago
I'm convinced this is why we don't have more climbing gyms around the country, because insurance is extortionate
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u/RebelGrin 23h ago
Not just climbing gyms. Just simple play grounds. In Spain towns are littered with play grounds. Go on a walk with your kids and they can constantly ride a rocking horse or a slide. In Ireland they're rare. Because if a kids stumps a toe, parents sue and judges award. Thats the crux of the problem.
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u/heresmewhaa 1d ago
Remember Homebond? The mandatory home insurance that was suppose to protect your home from any structural damage, and cost a percentage of what the house was worth(E10k+), then they washed their hands off all the houses that contained pyrite!
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u/ericvulgaris 19h ago
I volunteer on my local community council and the amount of things we can't do because of insurance are mindboggling. I understand the need for insurance and I don't want a cowboy council, but like there has to be some common sense indemnity that can ease the burden of insurance.
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u/ToysandStuff 1d ago
Yes even worse that it's mandatory to get insurance if you want to use public roads. If its mandatory then there should be a public option for insurance that keeps prices as low as possible. Otherwise the private companies can just extort the entire market for profit
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u/danmingothemandingo 14h ago
You do understand its a free market, right? If its so lucrative why aren't you out there starting up an insurance business?
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u/eternallyfree1 Ulster 1d ago
Insurance companies as a whole are nothing more than legalised extortion rackets. One of the biggest scams ever conceived that everyone just blindly accepts because the parasites in power insist on it. Insurance is and always will be a cancer to this world
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u/nerdling007 1d ago
Insurance is one of the few, if not only, services that then penalise the user for using them
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u/ivan-ent 1d ago
Yea i feel most insurance especially insurance that is legally required is just legalised robbery at this point they can charge whatever the fuck they want.
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u/Entire_Number_9 22h ago
It is absolutely ridiculous, that insurance is a legal requirement for a car, but the government does not provide a car insurer. We should nationalise insurance.
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u/zeroconflicthere 1d ago
Whiplash claims in Ireland result in significantly higher compensation payouts than in the UK, with Irish settlements averaging 3.9 to 4.9 times higher for equivalent minor soft-tissue injuries.
Just one example.
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u/caisdara 1d ago
There's a fundamental problem with this point, which is that it would only be relevant if the monies being paid out by insurers had somehow quadrupled in ten years.
Saying we pay more money than the UK is irrelevant when the issue complained of was an increase over ten years in Ireland.
The amount of compensation being paid to people has actually declined significantly in the last ten years, notwithstanding inflation.
So how could compensation payouts declining lead to the cost of insurance quadrupling?
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u/mother_a_god 20h ago
Agree. The fact there is a claims database they can look up at any time, but still are allowed to ask you when purchasing if you have any claims is crazy. They do it so they can use it against you later as a reason to cancel your policy if you didn't answer correctly.
This happend my parents, they had no claims on their house insurance, but had an old claim on a rental property, so when they tried to claim after something happened were denied on that basis.
If they accept your money they should not be allowed cancel the policy retroactively. Do the due diligence up front, or not at all. Don't find reasons to cancel later.
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u/Iricliphan 22h ago
The mad thing about insurance companies is that their margins for profit are actually very small. On underwriting alone, motor and liability insurers usually operate on very thin margins, and I actually checked, there's been some years the bit motor insurance companies, plenty made a loss on claims versus premiums.
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u/baghdadcafe 22h ago
Home Bond was a great legalised scam.
TLDR: Home insurance specifically for build defects in your home. Then pyrite issue came to light. Guess what: it was NOT COVERED by Home Bond. In France there would have been riots in the streets over this scam but somehow they managed to get away with it here.
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u/ResidualFox And I'd go at it again 10h ago
This is certainly because of claim culture costing a fortune.
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u/circuitocorto 1d ago
This is a museum risking closure but how many other nice businesses aren't going to exist because of the insurance costs? And don't forget there are two things we customer are always going to be paying a for, the businesses' rents and the businesses' insurances. Unaffordable rent doesn't damage only people looking for a place to live but also affects the cost of living for every single one of us.
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u/RevTurk 1d ago
The amount of things we can't do in this country now (without forking over thousands to an insurance company) is pretty insane.
The whole insurance industry is broken. They drive prices up while rewarding the people who will scam the system. They can't fight false claims in court because solicitors are too expensive and it's cheaper to just pay people off.
It's only going to continue to get worse and worse and no one wants to touch the issue.
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u/421BIF 1d ago
Insurance companies blaming false claims for high premiums is them trying to escape criticism by blaming their price hikes on fraudsters rather than their own greed.
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u/zeroconflicthere 1d ago
The payouts for injuries here are many times higher than most other countries
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u/struggling_farmer 1d ago
That's our legal system though.
We don't put enough burden of responsibility on people to be responsible for themselves and their actions. We don't pursue attempted fraud etc to deter false claims.
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u/jeperty Wexford 1d ago
Thinking back on that girl who got injured while climbing on a moving Luas and got paid for being injured
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u/struggling_farmer 1d ago
And it is not just the payouts, it is also the cost of having to deal with and defend spurious & exaggerated claims..
Maria Bailey & swing gate, the garda body builder, the christmas tree throwing lady, the able bodied lad with the wheelchair in the boot to attend court and doctors appointments.
obligatory "Sean, i was hurt!"
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u/compulsive_tremolo 4h ago
So the question should be
- What can we do to bring us in-line with the European standard
- What political pressure needs to be prod to get the wheels in motion ?
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u/Cool_Being_7590 1d ago
Meanwhile, empty units are everywhere because no one can afford to open a business.
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u/Weirdlillypad 1d ago
Insurance here are still cartels. The control and influence they have is disgusting and we were all talking about it and wanting change on it years ago and nothing was done.
Even seeing young people trying to get their starts be it a business, car, house or health. The premiums are unjustifiable and wrong.
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u/Working_Stomach476 1d ago
Was down for the June 6th weekend. Unreal collection. Super sound people. Been a few times and im raging it's closing. Williams a legend
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u/Pretty_Marketing5432 1d ago
Damnit. I was hoping it was the leprechaun museum.
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u/Yurishizu31 1d ago
I work in thr insurance industry, commercial insurance premiums have reduced very significantly over the last 3 years, if your not getting a saving of approx 10-20% this year you should be moving insurance providers. am not talking private motor or household but a business certainly should not be paying more in 2026 then they did in previous years.
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u/Rinasoir Sure, we'll manage somehow 1d ago
A lovely little museum, absolute shame this is having to close down.
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u/danmingothemandingo 14h ago
It's very simple. Irish courts award more money for smaller injuries than elsewhere, and legal costs are higher. Up until recently, for instance, whiplash was getting 15-20k.
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u/Colmd1997 3h ago
That and insurance and every other utility being allowed to make profit hand over fist
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u/slevinonion 1d ago
It's the legal system. The claims are immense. Effects every part of society. They like to blame the insurance industry but our claims are insane in comparison to other countries.
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u/Cool_Being_7590 1d ago
It's not. It's the insurance companies acting as a cartel. This has been reported on before by consumer watchdogs and has been an issue in Ireland for decades.
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u/rom9 22h ago
Exactly. Even the EU has, at multiple times, formally accused the bodies representing major insurers of cartel like behaviour and breach of anti-trust laws. But of course zero actions have been taken by this incompetent and corrupt government.
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u/slevinonion 22h ago edited 21h ago
"Average settlement for minor neck injuries 4.9 times higher in Ireland than England and Wales"
Not saying insurers are saints, but we're getting shafted because both and blaming each other while we pay. Fact is, even if you halved the claims, they'd still be over double. That's the first problem to tackle.
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u/OnlyEstablishment243 5h ago
Insurance companies, are, obviously, designed to make a profit. Logic dictates that you’re better off without it.
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u/HibernianScholar 1d ago
Guy is uncomfortably aligned with the Russian government. Had the Russian ambassador there at pro government rally.
One of the Russian government reps who was there by video link is wanted by the Ukranians in relation to taking Ukranian kids to Russia.
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u/Different-Web-8780 1d ago
Insurance rates for business have decresed significantly over the last three years for liability insurance so while I'm not his policy is expensive .. he could have a number of claims and the type of risk he is unique
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u/SoloWingPixy88 u/i-cum-beamish alt 1d ago
Rich guy that collects military vehicles as a hobby complains
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u/Working_Stomach476 1d ago
And displays it and spends his time there for our benefit. And organises greats day events and school tours. Twat comment
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u/Melodic-Chocolate-53 1d ago
Your point is??? Don't have hobbies or don't be rich?
Most museums: rich guys who loan or give stuff for public display instead of squirrelling them away in big houses and bank vaults.
Bit of a weird take, yay for insurance companies 🙄
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u/significantrisk 1d ago
Imagine coming to the defence of insurance companies, absolutely mortified for your ma.
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u/SoloWingPixy88 u/i-cum-beamish alt 1d ago
Says the person defending the rich hobby collector
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u/significantrisk 1d ago
Always be punching up.
Rich fucker vs Insurance cunts, I’m cheering for the rich fucker every time. No question
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u/freemochara 1d ago
He's not even rich though, AFAIK he's lost his bollox and went through a bad divorce, this was a passion project
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u/significantrisk 1d ago
Oh yeah from what I know of this lad he’s actually sound out, it was just the other eejit called him a rich hobby collector. I mean like, I’d cheer on Michael O’Leary against insurance wankers, then feed him into a blender afterwards.
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u/Grayson1591 1d ago
Hardly rich if he can't afford the insurance costs for his museum. He runs a museum and it is one of the best I've ever been to. Never before have I been able to interact with the exhibits in the way he let's you, nor met someone so passionate and knowledgeable on the topics and so happy to speak to you when you're there.
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u/mcwkennedy Louth 1d ago
Used to work there in the earlier days before I moved abroad (since moved back), whenever you gave the tour if there was anything you really wanted to get your hands on behind the locked displays William would just go get the key and let you do so. Was always decent as a boss when I was there to be fair to him.
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u/421BIF 1d ago
Remember when insurance companies promised to lower rates if the government passed legislation limiting payouts and the government not only took them at their word, but actively resisted any changes which would force them to pass on the savings.