The country's largest trade union, SIPTU, has joined the Law Society in criticising assertions by the Irish Business and Employers Confederation that Ireland has abnormally high levels of "spurious" personal injury claims, and a compensation culture. SIPTU said, however, that IBEC's suggested compensation board deserved consideration.

The head of SIPTU's health and safety unit, Mr Sylvester Cronin, rejected IBEC's claim that Ireland had the lowest occupational accident rate in the EU. He said the union had no unified system for gathering accident statistics, "which makes it virtually impossible to make valid comparisons across national boundaries".

"For example, in some EU member-states workers travelling to and from work who are involved in road traffic accidents are counted as occupational accidents. Here, no road traffic accidents are counted as occupational accidents, even where it involves someone whose work is driving."

He also said Ireland had a comparatively large number of people working in low-risk occupations, while other states had much greater numbers employed in high-risk sectors.

Mr Cronin said it made more sense to compare Ireland's injury rates. In 1992-97 the rate of serious occupational injuries increased by 29 per cent, from 961 to 1,240 per 100,000 at work.