The Minister for Justice, Equality and Defence, Mr. Alan Shatter T.D, has
announced that the Government today approved his proposals to prepare
legislation to give the courts new powers to make periodic payment orders
for the benefit of persons catastrophically injured through the negligence
of others. The Government’s approval meets a commitment to reform the law
in this area as outlined in the Programme for Government.
The Minister noted that “there has been much debate in recent years as to
the appropriateness and adequacy of lump sum awards in cases of
catastrophic injury. Assessing damages in such cases is difficult given
the uncertainties affecting assumptions made as to the person’s future
circumstances and issues such as investment returns and inflation rates.
The danger with the lump sum approach, which is the current method of
assessing damages in such cases, is that it can lead to situations where a
person is over-compensated or under-compensated. Under the lump sum
approach there is no recourse for a plaintiff who may exhaust his fund by
exceeding his life expectancy perhaps owing to advances in medical science.
Similarly, there is no recourse to a defendant where the plaintiff dies
before the time originally projected and the remainder of the lump sum
becomes, in effect, a windfall for his or her family.
I believe that the introduction of an appropriate and effective scheme of
periodic payment orders will address this issue and will further the
interests of justice. It is, of course, vital that any such scheme must
ensure the continuity of payments to the plaintiff. Where the State has
such a liability, security of payment is not an issue. However, in the
case of private defendants, usually an insurance company, the matter is
more complex and will require the establishment of a financial
infrastructure to ensure continuity of payment, whilst ensuring that the
State’s position under any such scheme is fully protected.”
The drafting of the General Scheme of the Civil Liability (Amendment) Bill
will commence shortly and will take account of the recommendations of the
Report of the High Court Working Group on Medical Negligence and Periodic
payments.