The Motor Insurers' Bureau of Ireland which compensates blameless victims of uninsured motorists has expressed its "surprise" at strongly worded criticism from Minister for Transport Noel Dempsey. Tim O'Brienreports.
Castigating the bureau after it was revealed that a compensation case had taken more then 20 years to be settled, Mr Dempsey said there was a further waiting list of more than 5,000 people seeking redress.
Asking the board "to get on now and meet the needs of these people", Mr Dempsey said the board seemed "to have lost sight of the human suffering" involved in the cases.
"Anybody that has to wait 20 years, even anybody that has to wait four or five years for a payment, that is too long," he said adding that "all of us pay into this fund, there is €370 million in it".
The Minister was making his criticism after the High Court last week ruled the bureau should pay compensation to a woman who had suffered injuries as a passenger in the back of a van, which was being driven by a uninsured driver.
The bureau argued it had no power to pay compensation as the woman had not been sitting in a fixed seat. The woman then took a case against Ireland to the European Court of Justice and was successful. The court ruled that Ireland was in breach of a European directive and that the State was liable to pay compensation.
Further discussion took place between the Department of Transport and the bureau as to which body should make the payment and the matter was referred to the High Court.
The court ruled last week that the bureau was effectively an instrument of the State and should pay up.
Efforts to speak to the bureau's chief executive, John Casey, were not successful yesterday.
However, Mr Casey told RTÉ radio news that he had been "surprised" by the criticism from the Minister.
Mr Casey said the board "agree, certainly in principle with the Minister that it is regrettable that victims in this case and related cases have not been compensated".
However, he said the reason was that Irish law did not provide for compulsory insurance for passengers when they were not travelling in fixed seats.
Mr Casey said the bureau was therefore "precluded by law from compensating those victims.
"The Road Traffic Act defines very clearly that passengers in the rear of vehicles without fixed seats are not compulsorily insurable. That basically is the law and that basically is what we have to abide by. We would be ultra vires [ beyond our powers] if we went beyond the law and compensated people whose status was that they were not compulsorily insurable," he said.
Mr Casey added that the High Court judgement delivered on Thursday of last week was the first time that clarity had been put on who should compensate such victims. He said he was "a little surprised" at the Minister's attitude. The first the knew of the Minister's comments was when contacted by RTÉ.