Brendan Howlin (Wexford, Labour)
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507. To ask the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport further to parliamentary Question No. 1181 of 9 June 2015, if his Department has concluded its consultations with the insurance industry on the issue of the lack of compensation for persons injured in non-negligent motor accidents, in which liability cannot be assigned to any party; the reason for the then Minister's statement that this was a rare occurrence and the information available to him as to the number of claims of inevitable accident and-or automatism made in relation to road traffic accidents in recent years; if he has been provided detailed information regarding cases in which blameless persons have suffered serious injuries and find themselves without any form of compensation in such circumstances; his views on whether there may be a role for the Motor Insurance Bureau of Ireland in such cases; his further views on whether a change in the law may be required; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [29752/17]

Shane Ross (Dublin Rathdown, Independent)
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Claims for damages in motor collisions are claims in tort, specifically negligence. If the third party can show that the injury/damage suffered is due to the negligence of the policyholder/driver he will succeed in his claim, and cover under the third party section of the motor policy will be triggered.

My understanding from contacts my Department has had with Insurance Ireland, with the MIBI, and with insurance companies is that, including because of advances in medical science and because of the relatively high probability of losing such cases in court, and the potential for poor publicity from refusing to pay a claim on the basis of non-negligence, insurance companies are reluctant to advance an argument of non-negligence. I am aware of only one case in Ireland of the type the Deputy has mentioned, tested in court, where the court has found that a claim for damages in a motor collision was not payable on the basis that the driver / their employer (as well as the plaintiff) were not negligent. The details of that case were very specific and in my view extremely unusual.

Given that the law in this area has generally operated well in Ireland, making changes to legislation or attempting to make the MIBI liable to deal with situations which may be extremely rare or close to hypothetical have not been a priority for my Department in the light of other priorities. However, as stated by my predecessor as Minister, Paschal Donohoe TD, in his letter of 12 August 2015 to the Deputy, if the Deputy has any information to the contrary, and wishes to set out a specific case, I would be happy to examine same.