Duffy campaign fudge on payout for reckless crash
GAVIN DUFFY’S presidential campaign deliberately misled this newspaper last week when we asked who paid the compensation awarded to the woman maimed when he crashed into her.
At the time of the 1978 crash, Mr Duffy had been driving without insurance and a driving licence.
The victim was awarded £221,127 when Mr Duffy was sued under his birth name Liam Duffy. Last Saturday we asked whether he had paid this himself or if it had been funded by the Motor Insurers’ Bureau of Ireland. His PR adviser Richard Moore said: ‘Gavin Duffy made a payment from his own funds in relation to the case.’
The full truth – which Mr Duffy withheld until after we published – was that he’d made a settlement of £35,000 and that the balance of £186,127 had been paid by MIBI – meaning other drivers, who were paying their insurance, funded the vast majority of the claim against Mr Duffy. A-Ceart road safety campaigner Mary Clinton called on the multimillionaire to repay the money, adding: ‘Other people who are paying their insurance are paying for what he did.’
In a statement Mr Duffy told the MoS: ‘I paid the MIBI the amount sought by them from me in full and final settlement. That then concluded all matters arising from the accident.’