Ms Sara Moorhead:

Another factor to bear in mind in terms of the system in the United Kingdom and Ireland - I appreciate that this does not happen so much with the lower awards - is that we work on a system whereby we pay for nothing for the injured person so one of the issues is that anybody who gets money here loses money in another way. In the UK, everything other than the general damages is covered to a large extent. There is the NHS, much as it is now maligned, and care costs. One of the particularly problematic issues here is that in the bigger claims – I know we are not dealing with the bigger claims – the reason they are at such a level is because it would not be inconceivable that one would spend €300,000 a year on nursing care for a catastrophically injured person who has a fairly normal life expectancy. That is the reason settlements of up to €10 million can be reached. I know we are not dealing with such payments today but there is a periodic payments provision which it seems to us is a far fairer system for everybody.

Another factor is that people lose their disability payments if they get money. For example, if they get €100,000 they lose their disability payments so they now put in a claim for the loss of disability payment as an actuarialised out-of-pocket expense. That leads one to the area of societal choices as to whether in those circumstances the insurance company or the taxpayer should pay. It is a complex issue for that reason.