More than €100 million in personal injury awards has been paid out to date by the Personal Injury Assessment Board (PIAB), the body said today.
Established three years ago, the State's injuries assessment body said it expects to deliver in excess of €100 million every year in payments from 2008.
The statutory body was set up in response to concerns about rising insurance premiums as a result of the high legal cost of personal injury claims and the length of time it took to deal with them in the courts system.
PIAB chief executive Patricia Byron
PIAB chief executive Patricia Byron said delivering €100 million in awards was "a significant milestone" for the body.
She said PIAB had delivered awards three times faster for claimants and at the same level of compensation as the courts system, thereby reducing stress and trauma for accident victims.
Ms Byron said the body had also delivered cost savings of €45million to date "without any reduction in the size of awards to the injured parties".
The PIAB chief executive said that for those paying for accidents, the cost of processing claims through PIAB continued to reduce and were currently up to 70 per cent cheaper than litigation.
"Based on trends to date and the achievement of full-volume activity in 2007, PIAB is targeting annual processing cost savings of €40 million (relative to litigation from 2008). We believe this is achievable whilst ensuring the same level of compensation and continuing to drive down insurance premiums for consumers" Ms Byron added.
PIAB said it will from now on review each medical report linked to claims on its own merits in order to determine an appropriate allowance.
Up to now, a set allowance fee of €150 applied for each claim.
"Given the range and varying complexity of medical reports received by the agency over the last three years - some warranting a lesser fee and some a higher fee - the board has decided that this approach is no longer appropriate. In taking this decision the Board also gave due regard to best practice in this area as set out by the Competition Authority last month," Ms Byron said.