Minister Peter Burke on potential new minor injury compensation cap

Peter Burke (0:00)

The Hard Shoulder, with Ciara Kelly and Shane Colman.

Shane Colman (0:04)

On Newstalk, with Ciara.

Now, we are joined by Minister Peter Burke, who is Minister for Enterprise, Fine Gael TV for Longford Westmead, and of course, now also the Acting Communications Minister in the absence of Patrick O'Donovan. Minister, let's start with this proposal for a UK style cap on minor injury awards that you're looking on bringing in. Tell us what you're thinking.

Peter Burke (0:31)

Well, first of all, we've made significant progress, particularly in relation to motor insurance, for now in the 11th consecutive month, where we saw a premia fall, we're down about 5% since September 2025 But looking at the data that's coming back from the Injuries Resolutions Board, one thing is very clear, a huge proportion, about 67% of the claims going through, are for small, minor injury, soft tissue injuries. And they're causing a lot of slowdown in the system and critically amassing huge legal costs. And critically, the Injuries Resolutions Board sought legal advice recently and came to me with it in relation to introducing a cap, which would be for your lower grade, small, soft tissue injuries that could be enforced through the Injuries Resolutions Board and indeed through the courts, which would put a floor, a ceiling on the level of claims. I think that would be of great benefit to the system and would feed back down to the consumer in cheaper insurance.

Shane Colman (1:29)

And in the UK they have one or England, Wales they have one. I think it's about 6000 euro if you convert. Is that the kind of level you're looking at for here?

Peter Burke (1:38)

So we would have to set that through the Injuries Resolutions Board in consultation with the Oireachtas, but absolutely we're about four to five times higher for our claims here about well over 10,000 euro for the average minor injuries claim. And that's pretty significant and we want to reduce that significantly. So I'll be thinking a lot lower level than that, but we can work with the Injuries Resolutions Board in consultation with the Oireachtas if, and this is the pending, we have to get obviously the constitutional law officer of the government, which is the AG, to approve that direction, which I hope he will.

Shane Colman (2:11)

And can I just clarify, I think you've sort of alluded to this already, this would cover both injury resolution board cases and also those who choose to go to the courts.

Peter Burke (2:22)

It would indeed. So it would apply to the courts and the Injuries Resolution Board. There would be discretion for very exceptional circumstances that both would be able to avail of. There would be a right to appeal, which is important obviously under the constitution, but only on the point of law to the court. So in other words, you will be contained within that model. And critically, we will be following areas like WRC and RTB in terms of their right to make a determination. And once the Aractus sets the rates and the caps, which are proportionate, I think there's an avenue for it to work there. Though the legal parameters are narrow, I do believe there's an opportunity.

Shane Colman (3:00)

And just finally on this, if you were able to bring in a cap that brought down the average award say by 40% based on what it is in the UK, would that have a knock-on impact for people's premiums, do you think?

Peter Burke (3:12)

Well, that's what we would be aggressively going after to insure that is felt in insurance premium. And that's one of the slight concerns that we've had as a government, because over the previous action plan for insurance reform, we have carried out 90% of what was asked, the government has, in reforms. But insurance has come down in some regards, but personal liability, employer's liability, is absolutely frustrating people. And we haven't seen the progress on it. So we will be pushing hard through our cabinet subcommittee on insurance to insure that those reforms, in agreement with the insurance sector and in agreement with Injuries Resolutions Board, are going into our premium, because we need to see the results at the end of the day.

Shane Colman (3:49)

Okay, Minister, can I ask you about something outside your bailiwick, but as a representative of the government, can I ask you about those reports on Erlinga's flight and the Cork airport flight among a number of European services hit by bomb threats? It comes after what happened yesterday in relation to flights. There's also been issues with supermarket fridges, with schools in Italy. Does the government have any intelligence as to who might be behind this? I've heard the term state-sponsored actor used.