Injuries Board payouts rise nearly 12% to €240m

The Injuries Board made more than 10,000 personal injury awards worth more than €240 million last year , and attributed a year-on- year increase in the total value of payouts of nearly 12 per cent to greater efficiencies in processing claims as well as some "exceptionally high-value awards". The largest of these was €1.3 million.

Lower-cost model
In its annual review published

today the board said it handled more claims as insurers and claimants embraced its lower-cost model.

The total value of awards it made was €243.5 million, up 11.7 per cent on the €218 million awarded in 2012. However, the number of accidents and other incidents remained unchanged.

The board assesses personal-injury claims and makes awards relating to motor, employer and public-liability accidents, without the need for litigation.

Non-adversarial model
According to its review, its non-adversarial model has delivered direct savings of more than €72 million in 2013 compared with the litigation model previously commonly used.

Updated litigation cost data indicates total cumulative savings (direct and indirect) since the board’s establishment in 2004 are about €1 billion.

These savings relate solely to processing and administration efficiencies. Three-quarters of awards were for injuries from road traffic incidents while a further 8 per cent were related to workplace injuries. Accidents in public places made up 17 per cent.

High awards
The average award in 2013 was €

22,847, up from €21,502 in 2012. The board said this reflected the inclusion of a number of exceptionally large awards last year. For example, more than 100 claims attracted awards exceeding €100,000, compared with 72 such awards in 2012.

The top three counties for awards per head of population were Limerick, Longford and Louth, while the bottom three were Kilkenny, Wicklow and Wexford.

The board's chief executive, Patricia Byron, said its processing fee to insurers had fallen 30 per cent, from €850 to €600, which had seen the cost of processing personal injury claims at historically low levels.