Feb 8, 2021
The Alliance for Insurance Reform has expressed serious concerns regarding the validity of the Judicial Personal Injuries Guidelines due to be adopted on February 20th in light of reforms due to be put in place in England & Wales this May.
Peter Boland, Director of the Alliance, which represents charities, voluntary and community groups, sports and cultural organisations and SMEs severely affected by insurance costs said “Personal injury damages for whiplash injuries, which account for a massive proportion of personal injury claims in Ireland, are already 4.4 times higher than in England & Wales. But this May, awards for minor whiplash injuries in England & Wales are scheduled to be dramatically reduced. This will leave the guidelines due to be adopted by the Judicial Council on the 20th February completely out of synch with the jurisdiction that much of our legal precedent comes from, to an extent that will make it difficult to maintain the credibility of the Irish guidelines unless this reduction is factored in.“
Examples of the reductions that are expected in England & Wales include:
- “Whiplash – recovery within 1 year.” Currently £3,710. Expected to drop to £1,250 in May. (Currently €15,700 in Ireland)
- “Whiplash – recovery within 2 years.” Currently £6,730. Expected to drop to £3,910 in May. (Currently €19,400 in Ireland)
“We call on the Judicial Council, in their deliberations between now and 20th February, to take the new England & Wales guidelines into account and have regard to the common good in reducing general damages for fully recovered minor injuries by at least 80% to reflect international norms and norms already established by the Court of Appeal.”
ENDS
NOTES:
“Whiplash injuries, which account for a massive proportion of personal injury claims in Ireland, are already 4.4 times higher than in England & Wales” – from the Personal Injuries Commission final report, 2018 https://enterprise.gov.ie/en/Publications/Second-and-Final-Report-Personal-Injuries-Commission.html
Overall, the Alliance expects general damages for minor, fully recovered soft tissue injuries to be recalibrated in the manner reflected in the ISME Fair Book of Quantum which corresponds with our own independent academic advice.
The Alliance for Insurance Reform brings together 40 civic and business organisations from across Ireland, representing over 56,000 members, 700,000 employees, 599,000 volunteers and 374,000 students in highlighting the negative impact of persistently high premiums and calling for real reforms that will quickly reduce liability and motor insurance premiums to affordable levels and keep them that way. Our members include:
- AOIFE Ireland (Association of Irish Festival Events)
- Car Rental Council of Ireland
- Childminding Ireland
- Coach Tourism & Transport Council of Ireland
- Community Reuse Network Ireland
- Convenience Stores and Newsagents Association
- Cork Business Association
- Early Childhood Ireland
- Family Business Network Ireland
- Federation of Irish Sport
- Galway Chamber
- Galway City Business Association
- Galway County Public Participation Network (PPN)
- Home and Community Care Ireland
- Ireland Active
- Ireland’s Association for Adventure Tourism
- Irish Caravan and Camping Council
- Irish Concrete Federation
- Irish Hotels Federation
- Irish Road Haulage Association
- Irish Showman’s Guild
- Irish Street Arts, Circus and Spectacle Network
- Irish Travel Agents Association
- ISME
- Licensed Vintners Association
- Motorsport Ireland
- Nursing Homes Ireland
- Play Activity and Leisure Ireland
- Quick Service Food Alliance
- Restaurants Association of Ireland
- Retail Excellence
- RGDATA
- Sligo PPN
- Society of the Irish Motor Industry
- South Dublin County PPN
- Sport Ireland
- Union of Students in Ireland
- Vintners Federation of Ireland
- Volunteer Ireland
- The Wheel (Ireland’s national association for community, voluntary and charitable organisations)
For further details contact:
Peter Boland
ALLIANCE FOR INSURANCE REFORM
TEL: 086 826 6036
WEB: insurancereform.ie
FB: /insurancereformireland
TW: @InsuranceRefIre
Feb 4, 2021
Clubforce, the Galway-based sports participation software company, today announces plans to double its workforce following a €2.5m investment in the business.
This expanded workforce of 40 members of staff will be spread between its Galway and UK offices and will allow Clubforce to accelerate delivery of an ambitious product roadmap. This will see the existing club management system evolve into a complete sports participation system, which will transform how club members, sports clubs and their governing bodies interact with each other.
The new investment comes as Clubforce finished 2020 strongly with unprecedented demand for new and better technological solutions from sports club volunteers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Speaking at the announcement, Warren Healy, founder and CEO of Clubforce, said “Sports organisations were already feeling a certain level of strain before the pandemic struck. Grassroots sports relies heavily on volunteers, who tend to be time-poor and the pandemic has made the role far more challenging. Our plan is to provide these volunteers with a significant number of additional tools to simply make their roles easier. We know that volunteer tasks are an increasing challenge and we’re helping sports clubs to solve these challenges. The volunteers are the fulcrum around which everything else rotates in amateur sports.”
Warren pointed out that most of the heavy lifting on the fundraise was driven by the company CFO, Carole Neylon and the existing board. Carole commented that the funds will allow Clubforce to deliver on the vision of the company which is to bring participation management to the core of its product and to continue its international expansion from the Galway base. Carole went on to say that “while the product will be expanding significantly in its reach, the volunteer in these sports organisations will always be core to all of the product development”.
Carole added that “demand across the country, and overseas, has gone through the roof in recent months because of good marketing, good product and the effects of the pandemic. The investment and ongoing recruitment drive will give us everything we need to develop a world class product for our loyal and increasing customer base”.
The investment also sees a significant addition to the board as Noel Murray, ex Head of Operations – Japan and Asia with Microsoft, is set to re-enter the fray of business as Chairman of the board at Clubforce.
For enquiries contact:
Paul Madden
Director of Global Operations
paul@clubforce.com
087-6639282
About Clubforce
Clubforce is a complete sports participation system which gives sporting organisations and their people the tools to drive greater participation in their sport. The desktop and mobile application enable sports bodies to efficiently manage data, communications and funds and to collaborate on any aspect of sports participation with progress monitored through easy-to-use visual reporting.
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Jan 22, 2021
TG4 have announced that the station will broadcast weekly matches and highlights from the upcoming Australian Football League Women’s (AFLW) season.
The NAB AFL Women’s Competition begins on the last weekend of January with fourteen teams battling it out over twelve weekends to see who will reach the Grand Final in April.
The agreement between TG4 and the Australian Football League (AFL) will see matches being broadcast deferred each weekend as well as weekly highlights. The coverage will begin on TG4 on Saturday 30th January at 5.10pm (the full schedule for February is below).
There will be fourteen Irish players playing in this season’s NAB AFL Women’s Competition which is Australia’s national semi-professional Australian Rules Football league for female players. The first season of the league in 2017 had 8 teams; the league expanded to 10 teams in the 2019 season and expanded to 14 teams in the 2020 season. The league is run by the Australian Football League (AFL) and is contested by a subset of clubs from that competition.
AFL Head of Women’s Football Nicole Livingstone said she was pleased with the announcement and looked forward to the NAB AFL Women’s Competition being broadcast in Ireland. “We are proud to expand the AFLW broadcast to Ireland, a significant announcement for Australian Football given the impact Irish footballers have had on the NAB AFL Women’s Competition,” Ms. Livingstone said. “We have 14 Irish players currently on AFLW lists and it is great to know that their family and friends back home will be able to watch them in action this season.”
TG4’s Head of Sport Rónán Ó Coisdealbha said: “We are extremely pleased that TG4 have agreed a deal with the Australian Football League (AFL) to broadcast matches from the NAB AFL Women’s Competition. There are a lot of players from Ireland who play in the AFLW so the interest is very high. We would like to thank the AFL for giving us the opportunity to showcase their sport in Ireland.”
The fourteen Irish players confirmed for the 2021 season are as follows:
Sarah Rowe (Collingwood / Mayo)
Cora Staunton (GWS Giants / Mayo)
Aileen Gilroy (North Melbourne / Mayo)
Grace Kelly (West Coast Eagles / Mayo)
Niamh Kelly (West Coast Eagles / Mayo)
Sinéad Goldrick (Melbourne FC / Dublin)
Niamh McEvoy (Melbourne FC / Dublin)
Lauren Magee (Melbourne FC / Dublin)
Aisling McCarthy (West Coast Eagles / Tipperary)
Orla O’Dwyer (Brisbane Lions / Tipperary)
Ailish Considine (Adelaide Crows / Clare)
Áine Tighe (Fremantle Dockers / Leitrim)
Bríd Stack (GWS Giants / Cork)
Aishling Sheridan (Collingwood / Cavan)
DATES FOR NAB AFL WOMEN’S SEASON:
Round 1 – Weekend of 28 / 29 / 30 / 31 January
Round 2 – Weekend of 5 / 6 / 7 February
Round 3 – Weekend of 12 / 13 / 14 February
Round 4 – Weekend of 19 / 20 / 21 February
Round 5 – Weekend of 26 / 27 / 28 February
Round 6 – Weekend of 5 / 6 / 7 March
Round 7 – Weekend of 12 / 13 / 14 March
Round 8 – Weekend of 19 / 20 / 21 March
Round 9 – Weekend of 26 / 27 / 28 March
Finals series / Elimination finals – Weekend of 4 April (3rd place v 6th place & 4th place v 5th place)
Finals series / Preliminary finals – Weekend of 10 April (Semi-Finals, Winner of 3rd vs 6th plays team that finished 2nd, Winner of 4th vs 5th plays team that finished 1st)
GRAND FINAL – Saturday 17 April
TG4 Coverage
Saturday 30 January 5.10pm – full deferred coverage from a top match in the 1st round.
Monday 1 February 8pm – highlights from the weekends matches from the 1st round.
Saturday 6 February 5.10pm – full deferred coverage from a top match in the 2nd round.
Monday 8 February 8pm – highlights from the weekends matches from the 2nd round.
Saturday 13 February 5.10pm – full deferred coverage from a top match in the 3rd round.
Monday 15 February 8pm – highlights from the weekends matches from the 3rd round.
Saturday 20 February 5.10pm – full deferred coverage from a top match in the 4th round.
Monday 22 February 8pm – highlights from the weekends matches from the 4th round.
Saturday 27 February 5.45pm – coverage from a top match in the 5th round.
More information here:
List of matches: https://womens.afl/matches/2021
https://womens.afl/discover/aflw/the-game
Jan 22, 2021
Says we now have 19 State reports which highlight the need for urgent insurance reform
The Alliance for Insurance Reform has welcomed the publication of the Government’s Report of the SME Taskforce: SME and Entrepreneurship Growth Plan.
Key insurance-related recommendations in the Report include:
- Dramatically reduce the cost of EL & PL insurance via measures targeted at the cost of claims and the duty of care.
- Encourage greater competition by seeking out additional multinational underwriters to supply the Irish market.
- Develop best practice health & safety training for SMEs via Skillnet.
- Creating a process for attracting EU operators to the Irish market and/or encourage Irish players to provide insurance services for SMEs.
Peter Boland, director of the Alliance said “While we welcome the content of this report and will obviously engage with its implementation, we now have 19 reports from the State in the last 4 years which highlight the need for urgent insurance reform. The success of this report will be measured by the actions that follow and how quickly they happen.“
Tracy Sheridan, owner of Kidspace play centres in Rathfarnham and Rathcoole and director of the Alliance said “The Irish economy is not going to recover from Covid-19 through SMEs unless insurance is sorted because insurance costs remain an existential issue for Irish SMEs.”
ENDS
Jan 18, 2021
Last week saw three evenings of celebration honouring our fantastic sporting volunteers. The Volunteers in Sport Awards supported by EBS culminated on Thursday evening after three inspirational ceremonies.
We congratulate all winners and the many thousands of volunteers they represent. We also thank our partners EBS, our judging panel and all our members for their continued support and engagement.
Check out the highlights from the awards at https://www.facebook.com/federationofirishsport/videos/721661402122360
