Ireland One of the Few Rich Countries to Have No Vaccine Injury Compensation Scheme
While vaccines are generally very safe and suffering a severe adverse effect from a vaccines is rare, they are not without the possibility of harm. Thankfully, most adverse events following vaccination are mild and resolve quickly and completely but even with proper design, manufacture and delivery, serious adverse events can occur following vaccination.
Vaccine injury compensation programmes are no-fault schemes established to compensate people who experience serious vaccine-related harm. No-fault schemes do not require injured parties or their legal representatives to prove negligence or fault by the vaccine provider, healthcare system or the manufacturer before compensation. Under such no-fault schemes, national Governments compensate people harmed by properly manufactured vaccines with the intention of removing the need for people to use legal or other processes against manufacturers with all the risks and stresses that such legal actions often entail.
Speaking about the need for the Irish Government to introduce a no-fault vaccine injury compensation programme, Product Liability Solicitor Liam Moloney said today “Ireland is one of the few wealthy countries in Europe that does not have a no-fault vaccine injury scheme. The UK’s scheme provides for a lump sum payment of €140,000 and most European schemes cover medical expenses, disability pensions and death benefits. The payments are usually based on the severity of the vaccine injury and some countries also cover non-economic losses to include pain and suffering and emotional distress”.
Mr Moloney continued “vaccine injury compensation schemes also boost public confidence in vaccines and quite rightly Governments are urging their citizens to be vaccinated in order to maintain societal herd immunity against diseases but at the same time, they should protect those who receive rare significant injuries from these vaccines”.
*In contentious business a Solicitor may not charge fees based on a percentage of the damages recovered.
