1996/99
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Ring raps legal profession for 'sky-high' insurance claims
25 March 1998
Money grabbing lawyers have been blamed for sending Ireland's 'compo culture' sky high.
The situation, according to Mayo Dail Deputy Michael Ring, is out of hand and must be tackled. He said in the ten year period from1985 to '94 the estimated cost of gross claims by employees had rocketed from £59m to £111m.
Adding further to the burden on the employer liability fund was the fact that the average cost per claim had increased from under £10,000 to more than £13,000 and the ratio of claims per 1,000 workers in Ireland was almost double that in the UK.
Deputy Ring stated: "The problem is two fold with employees running to their lawyers at every opportunity and the courts awarding outrageous amounts in compensation.
"This is a serious problem and must be tackled. One approach must be to make the workplace safer but their must also be action against the compo culture that is increasing at all levels of society and which is being fulled in many cases by money hungry lawyers."
Deputy Ring said it was clear from statistics that the Irish worker is far more claims conscious than his counterpart in the UK.
"Figures show Irish Judges to be more generous than in Britain. There should now be an equalisation of awards across all EU countries.
"The high cost of insurance is costing jobs to the Irish economy. I know employers who would take on more workers but for the costs involved in providing insurance.
"I appreciate that there will be differences in awards because the recovery process after an accident will vary.
"However, a broken finger in Ireland should not be more expensive than one in the UK", he added.
Connaught Telegraph - News & Sport - March 1998
