More than 19,600 uninsured vehicles were seized by gardaí in 2025, according to new figures from the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland (MIBI).
In total, 38,546 uninsured vehicles have been seized in the first 24 months since the introduction of the Irish motor insurance database (IMID) system in 2024.
The new insurance database allows gardaí to check the insurance status of a vehicle using automatic number plate recognition technology or through their mobile device.
The figures are contained in the IMID annual report for 2025, which shows 4,589,494 valid driver numbers have been added to the database.
Over the past two years, 51,024 charges and summons have been issued to drivers without insurance since the new database was introduced, according to the report, with 25,009 of these issued in 2025.
By the end of last year, a total of 3,646,638 vehicles were included on the IMID database.
David Fitzgerald, chief executive of the MIBI, said the bureau was “very pleased to see the contribution and impact that IMID is making towards law enforcement”.
“Driving without insurance is against the law and it has been a problem in this country for quite a while. That is why IMID was set up – to make it easier for An Garda Síochána to identify those who are breaking the law,” he said.
Noting that IMID allows gardaí to identify uninsured vehicles in “seconds”, Fitzgerald said it has changed the “whole uninsured policing picture completely”.
“Fake insurance certs or suggestions of mistaken identity can no longer be used by drivers to try to get away with breaking the law.
“In fact, the addition of driver numbers to IMID since last March has made it a waste of breath for drivers to even try the mistaken identity angle, with every driver number being tied to one specific individual for life,” he said.
However, Fitzgerald said there was “concern” relating to fleet and motor trade vehicles, with the bureau believing there was still a significant number of individuals “breaking the law”, having not yet added their vehicles to the National Fleet Database section of IMID.
The IMID annual report shows 384,247 vehicles have been added to the National Fleet Database, a subsection for vehicles typically used by businesses and motor traders, which use a single insurance policy for multiple vehicles.
The MIBI estimates there are thousands of fleet vehicles “still missing” from the database.
“We hope to work with An Garda Síochána and other IMID stakeholders this year to target that group and to remind all offenders that if you do not meet your legal motor insurance obligations, you face the real risk of being prosecuted, a process that IMID has made easier than ever for the gardaí,” Fitzgerald said.