Payment of €2m to Setanta claimants approved by High Court

A further payment of €2.1 million out of the State’s Insurance Compensation Fund (ICF) concerning personal injury claims against collapsed Maltese-registered motor insurer Setanta has been approved by the High Court.

The payment approval was sought on Monday by the State Claims Agency, to meet the cost of 50 claims against the insurer. It includes 21 third-party claims and a number of cases involving minors.

This is the 10th such application in respect of Setanta since 2016. High Court president Ms Justice Mary Irvine approved the payout.

Last January, the High Court approved a €3.29 million payout from the ICF in respect of meeting the costs of 129 third-party claims against the insurer.

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In 2020, the court approved an €8.35 million payout, including €3.14 million for legal costs concerning 161 personal injury claims. Those legal costs were a combination of expenses relating to claims pre-liquidation and costs taxed or agreed pre-liquidation for agreed claims.

Setanta, incorporated in Malta, carried on business here from 2007 and had 75,000 policyholders here when it collapsed in 2014. A liquidator was appointed.

Setanta made a total of €7.2 million contributions to the ICF from 2007. As a result of a Supreme Court decision in 2017 that the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland was not liable for certain of the Setanta claims, those are to be dealt with by way of access to the ICF. At the time of the seventh payment in June 2020, the court was told the fund had a balance of €80.2 million.

The fund will meet some 65 per cent of each first-party claim when settled or ruled, but no such cap applies to third-party claims. Setanta will also make certain payments once the final position of the assets in the liquidation is known.

The liquidator previously said in an affidavit that the equivalent compensation scheme in Malta was not available to address claims against Setanta policies.