Time to act: Tackling insurance fraud

There is hardly a Christmas pantomime that demands a suspension of belief in the way that some imaginative litigants seeking compensation for injuries through the courts do. Some of the evidence advanced is, put simply, laughable but that does not mean it is always dismissed. Awards, occasionally substantial have been made in the most implausible of circumstances. Not only do these cases raise the prospect of fraud or perjury, they put legitimate claimants in what can be a difficult situation, a situation where they not only have to fight for justice but where they have to fight to protect their good name as well.

This may be about to end as a new garda unit targeting serious car crash fraud is under consideration — which begs the obvious question: Why was one not set up years ago to end what junior finance minister Michael D’Arcy described as “the era of people chancing their arm by ramping up claims for injuries that do not exist”. Until this happens, this loophole will needle as one more example of our bizarre culture of making laws but not bothering to enforce them.