asked the Minister for Industry and Commerce when he intends to introduce legislation to expedite the payment by insurance companies of personal injuries damages.
Ceisteanna—Questions. Oral Answers. - Personal Injuries Damages.
3.
Much of the delay in settling insurance claims for personal injury arises from the need to have cases heard by the courts and there is little that can be done by way of legislation to expedite such hearings.
One of the recommendations on motor insurance in the Interim Report of the Committee of Inquiry into the Insurance Industry is for the introduction of a system of interim payments of claims. This and other recommendations in the report involve some difficult legal questions and require consultations with a number of interested Government Departments before decisions can be taken on them. These consultations have been initiated and are still in progress.
Is the Minister aware that very often five years elapse before these claims are dealt with? Is he further aware of the economic blackmail involved in the system that obtains at the moment whereby a man who has nothing but his ordinary weekly wages is offered, say, £3,000, when £10,000 would be a more likely offer? He is left without work, without money, over this period. It is scandalous economic blackmail. Is the Minister aware of it, and can anything be done about it?
The Minister is aware of it. The Minister inherited a very unsatisfactory situation in regard to the whole matter of motor insurance. Various remedies are being actively pursued in the ways I have indicated.