Case Explained: Violent crime victims to receive increased State compensation after European court ruling – The Irish Times – Legal Perspective

The State faces having to pay higher compensation to victims of violent crime, including sexual offences, following a significant ruling by the European Court of Justice.

At the High Court on Wednesday, the State agreed to pay damages – believed to be about €60,000 – plus legal costs, to a man who suffered significant injuries during an assault by a group of men in Dublin.

The damages are multiples of the €640 compensation awarded to the man by the State’s Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal.

The State also agreed, in line with last October’s decision by the European court, that the court should declare the State’s compensation scheme for personal injuries – criminally inflicted – is incompatible with a 2004 European directive in failing to provide for “fair and appropriate” compensation because it excludes general damages, including pain and suffering.

The man’s barrister Michael Lynn, instructed by solicitor James MacGuill, told Judge Emily Egan he was pleased to say the action had resolved on those terms.

Just over €10 million was paid to 203 victims under the compensation scheme in 2024 but awards under a scheme reformulated to comply with EU law could be multiples of that.

A spokesperson for the Department of Justice said the Government was committed to reforming the compensation scheme, including by putting it on a statutory footing, and work was under way to advance this.

Reform will need to take into account the European court’s judgment, the department is considering the judgment’s implications and will bring forward amendments to the scheme “in due course”, the spokesperson said.

The Law Reform Commission (LRC) is expected to report next month on the broader topic of victim compensation, the spokesperson added.

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Born in Spain but residing in Ireland, the victim, whose identity was anonymised, was violently assaulted by a group of people outside his Dublin home in July 2015.

He suffered a significant eye injury resulting in a permanent partial loss of vision and other physical injuries. He claimed he suffered mental distress and anxiety and, due to absence from work following the assault, was dismissed by his employer and was unemployed when he applied for compensation in October 2015.

After finding he suffered personal injuries and material loss from a violent intentional crime and had not received compensation from other sources, the tribunal awarded him €645 for out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a direct result of that crime.

The award was made for replacement of his driving licence and spectacles, purchase of medicine, and payment of hospital costs and travel expenses.

In August 2019, the man took High Court proceedings, arguing the compensation scheme was incompatible with EU law.

Having expressed doubt whether the scheme could have been limited to exclude compensation for pain and suffering, the judge referred legal issues to the European court.

[ EU directive on violence against women will not include rape after legal definition roadblockOpens in new window ]

In its decision, that court said Ireland provided for a scheme of compensation subsidiary to the reparation victims may obtain from an offender. The scheme was adopted because victims will often be unable to obtain compensation from the offender.

Under the 2004 directive, all EU member states must ensure national rules provide for a scheme of compensation to victims of violent intentional crimes which guarantees “fair and appropriate” compensation, the court said.

The exclusion of compensation for pain and suffering under the Irish scheme is precluded by the directive, it said.

To be classified as “fair and appropriate”, compensation must take into account the seriousness of the consequences for the victim and represent an “appropriate” contribution to reparation of material and non-material harm suffered.

In the man’s case, the €645 compensation could not be regarded as taking into account the seriousness of the consequences, for him, of the crime, the European court said.

Established in 1974, the Irish scheme originally provided for payment of general damages, including for pain and suffering, but was amended in 1986 to exclude such compensation.

That was due to concerns its original scope had serious consequences for the finances of the State, then experiencing an economic recession.