Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the Minister of State to the House. I raise the issue of the delay in the processing of claims before the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal which was set up to deal with claims by people who have suffered injury as a result of an assault or a crime committed against them. It came to my attention as a result of a number of colleagues in the legal profession in Cork writing to me, one of whom wrote to inform me that his client suffered major injuries. A claim was lodged in 2012. All the documentation was completed and lodged more than two years ago and he has still not received a date for when the matter will be dealt with. The person who perpetrated the injury has been sentenced to more than ten years in prison, so it was a very serious assault. A number of judicial proceedings were held in the High Court as a result of the delays. The most recent case involved a lady who suffered injury more than 13 years ago. There was an eight-year delay in dealing with her claim. To force the claim to be dealt with, she took judicial review proceedings to the High Court over that delay.

This is about victims of crime. These people have suffered serious injury. The Minister of State is aware that they are not entitled to lump sum compensation. They are entitled to recover the cost of medical care but also the cost of loss of earnings into the future on which actuarial evidence has to be produced. These claims are not the same as medical negligence claims because a person is not entitled to get the same level of compensation. It is to put the person back into the position they were in prior to the assault taking place.

It is not good enough that victims of crime should have to go through this process for up to eight years before a decision is taken. This matter needs to be addressed and the additional resources provided to ensure that all outstanding claims can be dealt with in a timely manner. It is in that context that I raise the issue.