Cormac Devlin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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88. To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment how the Injuries Resolution Board is generating savings which would otherwise have been spent on expensive and prolonged litigation; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [43336/24]

Dara Calleary (Mayo, Fianna Fail)
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In 2023 the Injuries Resolution Board delivered savings of over €75 million in avoided costs due to personal injury claims being resolved through the Board’s non-adversarial model rather than proceeding to litigation. These are real savings that should be passed onto insurance policy holders.

In the 20 years since its establishment the agency is estimated to have contributed to savings of over €1.1 billion which would otherwise have been spent on resolving claims through litigation.

The Central Bank’s ‘National Claims Information Database Employers’ Liability and Public Liability Insurance Mid-Year Report’, published in July this year, shows that for the first half of last year average legal costs for injury claims settled through litigation was €35,038. This compares to an average legal cost of €893 for claims settled through the Injuries Resolution Board. It is hard to comprehend why the cost of litigation should be almost 4,000% higher than that of the work of the Board.

Since the introduction of the Personal Injuries Guidelines in April 2021 we have seen a significant reduction in the cost of injury claims. The median Injuries Resolution Board award in 2023 was €11,650, down 37% from €18,459 in 2020.

The number of injury claims has also decreased substantially since 2019. Last year 20,263 personal injury claims were received by the Injuries Resolution Board. This is 35% lower than the number of claims received in 2019.

Last year saw an all-time high engagement by stakeholders with the Board, with a 71% consent rate for a Board assessment being the highest since the establishment of the agency.

The annual report highlights the expansion of the Injuries Resolution Board’s services last year following the reform of the agency as set down in government’s ‘Action Plan for Insurance Reform’.

This reform has seen the agency expand the types of cases it can assess, take on an enhanced research and reporting role, and strengthen its powers to combat fraud. Significantly the Board has also now introduced mediation as a new service to facilitate the settling of personal injury claims. The mediation service has commenced for employer and public liability injury claims.

I intend to extend this mediation service to motor liability injury claims before the end of the year, which should lead to further savings in personal injury claims.