Yesterday's settlement is welcome news for young motorists in that it sets a lead in terms of the removal of age limits. However, other criteria still limit the choice on offer.
A spokesman for First Call Direct, which had refused to quote 23-year-old Mr Colm Donoghue because he was under 25 years, said its age restriction no longer applies.
However, the company now requires a driver to have a two-year no-claims bonus before offering a quote. This is in line with several other insurers, such as Allianz and AA Ireland. At Hibernian, a provisional driver must have a three-year no-claims bonus, or must have been a named driver on a previous Hibernian policy.
Those with full licence for less than five years also need three years no-claims bonus.
Michael Kemp, chief executive of the Irish Insurance Federation (IIF), says that the difficulty for firms quoting new or young drivers is that such drivers carry higher risk and often arrive with no driving history. It was difficult, therefore, to separate the good from the bad, so companies err on the side of caution.
"The Equality Act effectively accepts this," he says. "It allows for refusal to quote on the grounds of actuarial evidence or sound commercial reasons."
However, Mr Mick Murphy of the Motor Insurance Justice Action Group (MIJAG) argues that first-time drivers should pay an average premium starting off and be assumed to be safe drivers until they prove otherwise.
"That's how it's done in other countries. If they establish a bad record for safety-related driving offences then they could load the insurance," he said. "It's still unclear what constitutes 'actuarial evidence' or 'commercial reasons'."
Ms Sandra Kavanagh of the Equality Authority said that it will take more cases to define "the circumstances of the law".
According to Conor Faughnan of the AA: "The fact is that business will always take money if it's profitable to do so, but the problem with young drivers is their accident record. The root cause of these problems is the road safety reality we face. So long as this continues insurance prices will reflect this."
