‘Premiums must be slashed after compo bid fails’

Call after Supreme Court decision

INSURANCE firms are under pressure to slash premiums after the Supreme Court rejected a woman’s challenge to lower rates of compo for minor accidents.

Bridget Delaney had mounted a legal fight over new guidelines reducing damages.

The Co Waterford woman, who tripped on a pavement, claimed her fractured ankle was worth up to €30,000 – significantly more than the €3,000 awarded by the Personal Injuries Assessment Board.

Her action was the lead case in a number of challenges to the new personal injury guidelines, drawn up by the Judicial Council, which came into effect in 2021. Ms Delaney’s case focused on a vote taken in March 2021 by the Judicial Council, made up of all the State’s judges, to adopt the guidelines.

She claimed the guidelines were unfair to persons who have suffered personal injuries. She claimed she fractured a bone in her right ankle, after she tripped and fell at a public footpath in Dungarvan on April 12, 2019. She alleged she sustained her injuries due to the negligence of Waterford City and Council.

In June 2019 she submitted a claim to PIAB and was awarded €3,000 damages. The Supreme Court yesterday ruled the latest personal injuries awards guidelines slashing compensation awards are legally binding. The Alliance for Insurance Reform last night called on insurers to deliver “substantial and sustained reductions” in insurance premiums on the back of the Supreme Court decision.

Padraig Cribben, the Chair of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, said: “Insurers have said that the uncertainty caused by the Delaney case has been a big factor in limiting their ability to reduce premiums based on the new Guidelines.

“[This] decision dispels this uncertainty and must lead immediately to substantial and sustained reductions in insurance premiums across all sectors of society.”