A recent report from the Republic of Ireland casts doubts on the UK insurance industry and government claims that personal injury compensation payments in the UK are too high and need to be reduced.
The report, carried out by the Irish government’s Personal Injuries Commission, shows that on average, compensation awards and damages payments in Ireland are 4.4 times higher than in the UK.
The statistics indicate that most personal injury claims come from motoring related accidents, accidents in the work place and public places and claims for medical negligence. Ireland has a fault-based compensation system, meaning that the victim of an accident by someone else’s negligence is entitled to compensation from the guilty party. The report also shows the high frequency of whiplash claims in Ireland, and that compensation and damages payments for whiplash are also significantly higher. Estimates suggest that 8 out of 10 motor-related personal injury claims currently reported are whiplash related, and when compared to the UK, the whiplash claims compensation payments are on an average three times higher.
Another analysis of 5,000 motorists based on a recent questionnaire by AA Roadwatch found out that the majority believe personal injury awards are too high, with just over half strongly agreeing that awards for whiplash injuries were unjustly high, and two in ten somewhat agreeing that compensation payouts for whiplash should be lower. Almost half of those surveyed also favoured a clampdown on payouts for injuries other than whiplash, with just under half strongly agreeing that awards for non-whiplash injuries were too high, while one in four agreeing somewhat.
Director of Consumer Affairs for AA Ireland Conor Faughnan commented:
"Ultimately we need to reduce the incentive for taking personal injury cases to court and the best way to achieve this is by ensuring consistency between personal injury awards which are offered by the Personal Injuries Board and those offered by the courts.”