Matt Shanahan: Demands Stronger Action on Insurance Fraud

Come all good luck, Count Corlett. Minister, as a member of the regional group I'm very happy to be here this evening to support this proposed amendment to the civil liability courts bill. I would like to thank Minister McGrath for his work in the area during the last Dáil. I think many members of the public and especially people in private industry were shocked over the last 12 months particularly on hearing insurance companies outline large-scale fraudulent personal injury claims, albeit without insurance companies making large-scale complaints to Garle to any great degree. Instead many insurance companies prefer just to transfer the liability cost onto hard-pressed businesses and consumers who as a result pay some of the highest insurance premiums in Europe on property, public liability and employer liability insurance. It has been long known that the burden of proof for personal injury claims has been of a low order and many soft tissue injuries cannot be confirmed on medical scans. Therefore they are to a degree subject to what the claimant is putting forward and the onward incapacity is rather subjective on the claimant also. This makes for a very difficult environment for which claims can be estimated. In many cases it is well described how insurance companies will settle a case only with the minimal amount of investigation rather than proceed to open court where compensation can vary widely and insurance companies will also face the legal claims and costs from the plaintiff's side. Despite talk of reform of fraudulent injury claims for a number of years now the issue is still pervasive and in many cases is downright brazen. Topical in recent weeks Minister was the sight of Pat McDonough of Supermax refusing to make video ever evidence available of evidence available of fraudulent trips and falls available to claimants that is in advance of their court sittings. His defence quite rightly argued that they would amend their claims on seeing what video evidence he had or not. Such legal defences claiming advance sight of such video evidence that could undermine a claim is making a mockery of GDPR rights and is also making a mockery of a fair and legal process. Beyond this recent evidence of legal practices trawling through claimants of the personal injury assessment board and highlighting that post-traumatic stress disorder could be considered a follow-on consequence of a personal injury claim and could be argued in court whereby the claimant would receive a higher level of payout and the security of their legal fees would be insured where such a case was discharged. This practice should be discouraged Minister. The motion that we are placing here this evening is not about prosecution but rather it is about prevention although prosecution is part of the motion and it is designed to make both claimants and legal counsel considered heavily before embarking on a case for personal injury awards through the courts as opposed to through PIAP. Insurance Fraud Minister is not a victim of crime and I'm sure you have heard all of the speakers before me speak about the effects this is having on business particularly the SME sector the need for enforcement of the need for enforcement of bogus insurance claims and I would ask you to engage with the Department of Justice regarding setting up new initiatives with on Garda Sheikana to provide oversight on tackling insurance fraud. Particularly businesses at present within the entertainment sector, the childcare sector and the leisure industry are really struggling now with insurance premium as are people paying motor insurance. So the time has come I believe Minister for government to take a really strong stand here. We have been hearing for quite a number of years about reform of the insurance sector and what we need to figure out now is also reform within the legal sector as to get these costs under control. We are paying the highest costs in Europe for insurance premium that makes us uncompetitive in terms of economic advancement and certainly in terms of exporting and it is an issue that has to be tackled as soon as possible Minister and I ask you to give it your full which I know your full attention. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.