18th November 2024
Highland Radio Broadcast 4th October 2024
As we move into October a Report from the Injuries Resolutions Board published today caught the eye of our contributor Seamus Gunn on the Greg Hughes show this morning with Donal Kavanagh sitting in. He referenced the Report as issued drawing comparisons to the level of awards in previous years, in particular 2019/2020. The manner in which the value of claims has dropped since the introduction of the Personal Injury Guidelines was highlighted in particular the drop in the level of the awards over the 3 disciplines of Road Traffic Accident, Public Liability and Employers’ Liability. It puts the median value of an award from the Injuries Board at just under €12,000.00, which was a 37% reduction on the levels of 2020. Motor claim awards were down 41%, public liability 40% and employer’s liability 29% as against 3 years ago. He also commented on the values being lower in that there was € 105 million less awarded with significant savings on Legal costs. He said that this was against the backdrop of increasing profits for insurance companies while the ordinary consumer would be of the view that premiums have continued to rise particularly in public liability cover. Seamus Gunn noted that while the saving may be welcome, he would like to see evidence of them being passed on to the consumer as to date he was of the view that they had not trickled down.
Changes to the inheritance tax level raising the top level to €400k along with changes to stamp duty, the introduction of the new 6% rate for purchases over € 1.5 million in the budget were referenced this morning in what was a varied segment on the show.
The full discussion is available to listen to below: