Compensation to crime victims almost trebles for first three months

THE compensation paid to crime victims in the first three months of this year has almost trebled compared to the same period in 2004, figures have revealed.

Until April 7, the Criminal Inquiry Compensation Tribunal had made 19 awards totalling €673,148.77. In the same period last year, the tribunal made 23 awards, but only to the value of €264,483.11.

The total pay-out in 2004 was €2,038,819 a considerable decrease on the 2003 figure of €3,239,658.

The tribunal, which is an independent body, may pay ex-gratia compensation for personal injury where the injury is directly attributable to a violent crime.

The chairperson and six ordinary members of the tribunal, who are appointed by the minister, must be barristers or solicitors.

Provisional crime figures for the first quarter of this year indicated a drop in the number of murders, manslaughters, assaults and sexual offences, although many of the awards granted by the tribunal relate to crimes committed last year.

To avoid the possibility of identifying individuals who receive awards, the tribunal does not provide details in relation to individual awards or the nature of the offences giving rise to the injuries.

While the amount paid out in compensation so far is almost three times that for the same period last year, a spokeswoman for the Department of Justice said the figures did not indicate a trend of higher pay-outs.

"Care should be taken in drawing any conclusions from this increase as the timing and scale of individual awards can have a large impact on the total over any given few months," she said. "For instance, a person's projected loss of earnings can have a big effect on the value of a single award."

Meanwhile, representatives of the Department of Justice are meeting to discuss ways of implementing a new EU directive which was agreed during last year's Irish Presidency.

The directive means that victims of crime committed in one EU member state but who live in another EU state will apply for compensation in the country where the crime took place.

However, a spokeswoman for the department said it was "too early" to say what mechanisms will be used to implement the new ruling, which must be introduced by January 1, 2006.

Figures released earlier this month show that, on average, ten tourists fell victim to crime in Ireland every week. Research by the Tourist Victim Support Service showed that theft was the most prominent crime against visitors and that 560 tourists were victims of crime in 2004.