Sir, – I can only sympathise with Austin Savage (Letters, July 15th) facing a 30 per cent rise in his car insurance premium, despite having no claims or penalty points. The fundamental problem here is that Government has made insurance mandatory yet pretends there is a free market in supplying it. Once any product is made mandatory by law, the concept of a free market in supplying that product has vanished as the most basic right of the consumer, to refuse to buy it, has been removed.
Under these circumstances Government has an absolute obligation to regulate that market and provide an appeals mechanism for consumers who feel they are being exploited by insurance companies, yet the Irish authorities have consistently refused to do this. – Yours, etc,
DONAL McGRATH,
Greystones,
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