IRELAND Law and Practice Contributed by: Tim O’Connor, The Bar of Ireland
There is a strong push both from the courts and the legislature to protect sport from the per - ceived chilling effect of personal injuries litiga - tion. Recent case law has repeatedly stressed the need for consideration of the social utility of sport, which must be considered as a counter - weight when the court is considering whether liability should be imposed. As a result, the Civil Liability (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2011, increased the threshold required to sue volun - teers – that is, those operating for expenses only, including in sport – to that of gross negligence, unless a motor vehicle is concerned or the vol - unteer knew they were ignoring the directions of the governing body. For organisers, which would include governing bodies, the courts are required to consider social utility as a factor before imposing any liability. More recently, the Civil Law (Miscellaneous Provisions) Act 2023 has amended the Occu - piers Liability Act to make it more difficult for those lawfully on a premises to sue the occu - pier of those premises in negligence for dam - age caused by the state of those premises. This would include those on sports pitches or in sports clubs, and was in part driven by difficul - ties in insuring sports premises. The idea is that reducing the legal exposure, whether it be of volunteers of occupiers of prem - ises, to risk, will lead to a reduction in insurance premium prices. However, given that no such reduction followed the reduction in risk exposure in the 2011 Act, it must remain very much open to question whether expanding the areas where barriers to litigation are put up will actually work as intended. Personal injury claims cannot be excluded, as a matter of public policy.
In the wider context, there is not a notable his - tory of hooliganism or violent disorder at sports events, and normal policing generally suffices. There have been cases of violence against play - ers and referees, both by other players and by supporters. It would be increasingly common that these are dealt with as criminal offences and tried as such. This has included prison sen - tences being given for those convicted of such offences. Sporting bodies in Ireland vary in structure. As a general trend, the higher up the sporting pyramid a body is, the more likely it is to have a separate legal personality, such as a limited liability com - pany or a company limited by guarantee. At the grassroots level, clubs are often unincorporated bodies with a trustee structure. This can lead to difficulties, with club members of unincor - porated clubs unable to sue the club of which they are members. The Law Reform Commis - sion has made proposals that all unincorporated bodies should have to shift to incorporated form, but over a year after these proposals were first made, there is neither change nor progress. 4.2 Corporate Governance 4. Corporate 4.1 Legal Sporting Structures Sport Ireland has a Governance Code of Sport under the wider National Sports Policy of the Irish government, with which all bodies operat - ing under the aegis of Sport Ireland must com - ply. Sport Ireland operates a compliance register where bodies certify their compliance, subject to review on renewal. Compliance is a necessary condition for funding from Sport Ireland, and is therefore, in practical terms, universal and man - datory; no sporting body can afford to miss out on this support in what is a small market where
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