Mum refused payout from child’s damages to buy car

A mother was refused a payment out of her child’s personal injury award so that she can buy a car.

Elaine Heron has told a court that her daughter Aoife, aged 13, had problems walking to school every day because of a foot condition.

County registrar Rita Considine told Ms Heron she would need to bring medical evidence to support her application for a €5,000 payment out in order to buy a car to drive her daughter to school.

Refusing the application, Ms Considine said the funds had been paid into court for the child’s benefit, but she would reconsider the matter if medical evidence of Aoife’s foot condition was produced.

Ms Heron, of Churchwell Rise, Belmayne, Balgriffin, Co Dublin, told the county registrar there was no direct bus going to her daughter’s school. She said Aoife had difficulty walking for more than 10 minutes. The walking distance to school was just over 15 minutes.

The court heard Ms Heron had been relying on a friend to drive her daughter to school and Aoife had missed 33 days of school last year because of her condition.

In March, Mr Justice Raymond Groarke had awarded Aoife €25,000 damages for soft tissue injuries she suffered after her head had become trapped in automatic doors on the Luas.

The Circuit Court had heard on Valentine’s Day 2008, Aoife was travelling from Connolly Station to Jervis St, Dublin, with her mother and her younger sister, Kate, who was in a buggy. As the family were boarding the Luas, the doors closed on the buggy, leaving Aoife in the train, her mother on the platform, and the buggy caught in the doors. The doors had eventually opened and Aoife, who was six-and-a-half-years-old at the time, had tried to walk through the doors. The doors closed again as Aoife walked through, trapping her head.