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"University College Dublin received 57 personal injury claims between January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2019."
Universities in Ireland have been struck by over 250 claims for compensation in the last seven years.
University College Dublin received 57 personal injury claims between January 1, 2013 to December 1, 2019. Under the Freedom of Information Act, UCD released documents of the claims in the form of Injuries Board notifications and solicitor's letters. Slips, trips or falls accounted for 26 of the claims and made up just under half of all claims for UCD. There were six claims for building site injuries, five claims for manual handling injuries and another four claims categorized as psychological.
There were claims related to maintenance work accidents, sports injury, equipment injury and even three claims relating to road traffic or bicycle accidents in UCD.
UCD clarified that for some of the claims there are other defendants in addition to UCD. However, in some cases a full indemnity was wanted, and received, by UCD from a third party whom UCD considered accountable for the claim.
Other universities also released figures under the Freedom of Information Act. University College Cork was sued 68 times between 2013 and 2019.
Meanwhile, Trinity College received 57 claims over a seven-year period from 2013 to 2018. 32 of them were related to slips, trips or falls. The documents revealed that the claims were split almost evenly between 27 public liability claims and 30 employers' liability claims.
Figures show that businesses across the country have been hit with soaring insurance policies, which is being blamed on the compensation culture in Ireland. The Personal Injuries Assessment Board revealed there were over 33,000 applications for compensation in 2018.
Director of the Alliance for Insurance Reform, Peter Boland made a very critical statement on the issue:
"People fall over all over the world, but what seems to be unique about Ireland in the last number of years is firstly the number of them that sue as a result and, secondly, the enormous amounts of money they are rewarded as a result of their misfortune."