Swearing to tell whole truth isn’t working

A perjury act has been proposed to prosecute those who make false claims of personal injury. Mick Clifford looks at why the system is currently too easy for chancers

We have a problem in this country with telling the truth. So says the Irish Small & Medium Enterprises Association (Isme), which yesterday proposed a perjury act to prosecute those who make false claims of personal injury.

Pat McDonagh, the founder of Supermac’s, has found himself at the sharp end of that culture. At yesterday’s event, he showed a video in which two men quite obviously staged an accident at a Supermac’s outlet in Mallow, Co Cork. They went on to make a claim that only ran into trouble when the video footage was produced.