Payments by insurance companies for personal injury claims have fallen sharply and the savings should be passed on to consumers, the Injuries Board said today.
Releasing preliminary data for 2010 the board said while the volume of claims had increased by 9 per cent between 2008 and 2010, the amounts offered in compensation had fallen by €30 million to €187 million, a drop of 13.8 per cent over the period.
The drop also reflects a change in the composition of claims, the board said.
The single biggest change over the last two years has seen a 10 per cent fall in the volume of higher value, employer liability claims last year.
“Our aim is to fully compensate accident victims but to reduce processing costs,” the chief executive of the board Patricia Byron said.
She said this policy would yield savings of up to €205 per claim for insurers this year, in addition to annual savings of up to €100 million arising from the board’s non-adversarial model.
“We believe it is incumbent on insurers to pass on these benefits to hard pressed consumers and businesses rather than constantly flagging reasons why premiums should increase,” she said.
According to the board, nearly three quarters of awards were for injuries from car crashes with the remainder being split between workplace (11 per cent) injuries and those sustained in a public place (15 per cent).
Longford and Limerick accounted for the largest number of awards as a proportion of population while Kilkenny had the lowest number of awards per head of population.
