Allister calls on Executive to legislate to help asbestos victims
15 March 2008
STATEMENT BY TRADITIONAL UNIONIST MEP JIM ALLISTER
Many who suffer from asbestosis first contract a lung condition known as "pleural plaques". Until a House of Lords decision (Rothwell-v-Chemical & Insulating Co Ltd) in October 2007 insurance companies were paying out to those who could prove they had contracted this disease from contact with asbestos, on the basis that earlier jurisprudence had deemed it a compensatable condition. Since the House of Lords decision insurers in Northern Ireland are refusing compensation, causing great hardship to sufferers from the disease.
The Scottish Executive has undertaken to introduce legislation to reverse the effect of the Rothwell judgement in Scotland and thereby restore compensation to pleural plaque victims. I have, therefore written to the NI Executive urging them to do likewise. The DFP Minister has responsibility for Law Reform. In a recent letter he has undertaken to me that his officials will give the matter their urgent attention.
I trust this will indeed result in suitable legislation so that all, diagnosed with this lung disease in consequence of exposure to asbestos, will again be eligible for compensation. This is as much a moral and humanitarian issue as a legal issue, and one on which I trust DFP will act swiftly."
