The public should be able to see who is making successful insurance claims against Kerry County Council.
That's the view of Fianna Fáil councillor Michael O'Shea.
He says people are under pressure due to rising insurance costs and feels it's important the list of successful claimants is published.
At the end of October 2020, there were 264 outstanding insurance claims on the books of Kerry County Council's insurers Irish Public Bodies (IPB).
These have a potential gross value estimate of €13.4 million.
Cllr Michael O'Shea asked the council for a breakdown of everyone who'd successfully claimed over the past five years; he says people should be entitled to know if there are serial claimers against the council.
CEO of Kerry County Council, Moira Murrell says when the council is notified of a claim, its insurance unit carries out an initial investigation of the facts of a claim.
However, subsequent to this all handling and processing of claims are carried out by IPB who are responsible for further investigation and also deciding on how such cases should be handled.
Payments to claimants, whether a result of settlements or court action, are paid by IPB under the council's insurance policies and the information is held by IPB.
She says in accordance with GDPR regulations and the Data Protection Act 2018, the data in this case would be considered personal information and its release would be in contravention of GDPR requirements; she says they've taken advice on this from the data commissioner who has advised against providing these names.
Ms Murrell says the council rigorously defends all claims and has policies in place to minimise claims.
