Injuries Board pays €210m in claims in 2011

Compensation of €210m was paid out to almost 10,000 people seeking payments for personal injury claims last year.

The Injuries Board, which is now fully self- funded, said the average award during 2011 was €21,339 and the highest was €829,444 — the organisation’s highest to date.

The average award amount was down 3.8% on 2010, with the decrease largely due to a reduction in the proportion of work related claims — typically of higher value — and reduced loss of earnings, given lower salaries across the economy.

More than three quarters of awards were for injuries from road traffic accidents while the remainder were split between workplace (8.4%) and public place (15.1%) accidents.

At 714, Co Limerick had the highest number of awards as a proportion of population, followed by Longford, Louth, and Dublin.

Cork had 1,108 awards in 2011, 11% of all compensation paid.

Set up in 2004 to stem excessive personal injury processing costs — a significant driver of insurance premiums — the board said the total compensation value since it was established exceeded €1bn.

The board is funded by levying fees on the person or entity against whom a claim is made.

Patricia Byron, chief executive of injuriesboard.ie, said it was an apt time to review the board’s work as it had made its 50,000th award in 2011.

“At the end of last year, motor insurance was 22% cheaper than a decade earlier. Claims that previously took three years to resolve are now typically resolved within seven months, and total overhead savings — direct and indirect — are estimated at over €500m. In addition we remain fully self-funding and, as of last December, we repaid in full our original establishment costs, of €7m to the Exchequer.

“In the context of the current debate about legal reform and our 2011 performance it is interesting to note that many of the same arguments to reform that we are hearing today were also put forward by opponents of the Injuries Board model in the early 2000s.”

The board’s boss said productivity had increased by 17% as a higher number of assessments and respondents and claimants were benefiting from reduced fees of 19% and 10% respectively.