Michael Healy-Rae (Kerry, Independent) | Oireachtas source

No, I think I will be able to use it all right. I have seen first-hand the blackguarding that has gone on between the medical and legal professions, as well as the nonsense we can see when we compare awards in England and Ireland. What is happening out there is crazy. There seems to be people who have homing devices for finding misfortune. There are people living in places where they have had the misfortune to find not just one hole on one occasion but maybe five or six different holes in different places. For some miraculous reason, these people cannot see a hole but they fall into it. They sue local authorities then they go to a nightclub, where they have the massive misfortune of missing a step and falling all the way down the stairs. The question is whether they really fall or not. At the same time, somebody must pay for it. What is going on is disgraceful. Just because insurance companies are paying out the money does not mean this is not fraud or robbery. It is the same as putting one's hand into somebody else's pocket and taking their money. We are paying the price at the end of the day.

I have no problem with genuine claims and as far as I am concerned, the people seriously hurt in road accidents or accidents at work do not get enough money at all. I am talking about bogus claims. These are the people who get a small tip to the back of a car and instead of getting out and saying they are fine and the old bumper can be fixed and is grand, they go around holding their necks for six months afterwards. When the court case is settled, all of a sudden the neck is fine and these people are out disco dancing the next week, looking to see where they will fall again and have another claim. There are serial complainants and people making a living out of this type of racket. How they live in such a way I do not know. It is wrong and horrible. It is our job as legislators to try to stand up against this. We must stand up for the business people as at the end of the day they create work and wealth in communities.

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