It is a good idea to buy travel insurance as soon as you book a holiday rather than wait until the last minute, because you will be eligible for compensation if you need to cancel or rearrange your trip due to ill health or an illness or death in the family.

Make sure to read the terms and conditions of the policy carefully as there will be plenty of "exclusions". Some insurers won't provide any cover if you are travelling to certain countries. For example, Insurancebookers.ie's policy won't cover travellers in Algeria, Lebanon, Libya, Israel and Jordan.

When buying online, you may not be sent a copy of the full terms and conditions until after you have paid for the policy. In these circumstances, there should be a cooling-off period of at least 14 days in which you are allowed cancel the policy and receive a refund.

For standard annual multitrip policies, people who have private health insurance will be able to obtain discounted rates from various providers including Blue Insurances, which sells through travel agents and Simply Mortgages, Justcover.ie, EBS, Getcover.com and Toptravelinsurance.com. VHI also sells multitrip policies to its own members.

If you take more than a couple of holidays a year, it will probably be cheaper to take out a multitrip policy rather than paying for a single policy each time, especially if you are planning a skiing holiday. Cover for winter sports is automatically included in most multitrip policies.

Before buying travel insurance, it is worth knowing that the Republic has reciprocal healthcare agreements with many countries, including Australia. Visitors to EU countries, Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein or Switzerland should apply to their local health office for a European Health Insurance Card, which entitles them to any necessary public healthcare in those countries.