OVER £100,000 has been paid out in compensation to victims of footpath accidents in Mid-Ulster in the last two years, the Courier can reveal.
And in Northern Ireland the compensation figure stands at a staggering £1.6 million.
The scale of personal injury payouts linked to falls to the pavements was revealed in new statistics released by the Department for Regional Development.
In the Mid-Ulster area, almost £103,000 around was paid out over a two-year period following compensation claims in the towns of Dungannon, Cookstown, Armagh, Omagh and Strabane.
According to the Department of Regional Development, there were a total of 23 claims in the Dungannon, Armagh, Cookstown, Omagh and Strabane areas.
Footpath compensation claims, paid
out between April 2009 and March 2011, are as follows:
Dungannon Section Office - no of claims 3 -l £17,750.00
Armagh Section Office - no of claims 5 - £30,501.00
Cookstown Section Office - no of claims 5 - £21,833.30
Omagh Section Office - no of claims 6 - £26,000.00
Strabane Section Office - no of claims 4 -£7,500.00
John Dallat, an SDLP member of the public accounts committee (PAC) at Stormont, also disclosed that more than £4million was paid out in damages to members of the public injured on the Province's roads as well as the footpaths.
He claimed that when compensation levels were discussed by the Stormont committee in February last, the Department was not prepared to consider anything in its performance which could be improved.
But after the latest figures, Mr Dallat insisted the payouts for such incidents were unsustainable and further claimed solicitors were to blame.
Stated the MLA: "Clearly, there is an urgent need to review the notion that nothing can be improved. These figures suggest there is still much to be done."
Mr Dallat said the Department had also been asked to address why compensation claims in Northern Ireland were considerably higher than in England and Wales.
Source: Tyrone Courier
Date: Wednesday 6th July 2011