Personal Injuries Guidelines — Psychiatric Injuries: How Compensation Is Assessed in Ireland

What the Guidelines Say About Psychiatric Damage

Chapter 4 of the Personal Injuries Guidelines sets how psychiatric injury is valued in Ireland. The courts must apply it when assessing general damages. The chapter opens with a strict gate: compensation is available only for a diagnosed condition, not for ordinary distress.

The Judicial Council adopted the Guidelines on 6 March 2021 under section 7 of the Judicial Council Act 2019. They took effect on 24 April 2021, replacing the Book of Quantum. A court must now have regard to them and state reasons for any departure, under section 22 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004. On the threshold question, the Guidelines adopt the rule from Kelly v Hennessy [1995] 3 IR 253:

"In the absence of physical injury, recovery is permitted only in respect of recognisable psychiatric injury ... upset, distress, grief, disappointment and humiliation, do not attract compensation."

Personal Injuries Guidelines, Chapter 4 (Judicial Council, 2021)

One nuance the bracket tables do not capture: grief itself is carved out and routed elsewhere. Grief experienced by a dependant may instead attract a statutory award under Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961. There, the mental distress solatium is capped by statute. The valuation brackets that follow assume a recognisable psychiatric condition has already been established.

The Two Ladders: Psychiatric Damage Generally and PTSD

Chapter 4 uses two separate four-band scales. Which scale applies depends on the diagnosis. A general psychiatric condition such as depression, anxiety or an adjustment disorder runs on one ladder; post-traumatic stress disorder runs on its own.

This split matters in practice. The diagnosis recorded by the treating psychiatrist or psychologist decides which table the court reaches for, and the two ladders carry different figures at every band. A point Irish practitioners watch for: the second band in each ladder is labelled Serious, not "Moderately Severe". The "Moderately Severe" label belongs to the equivalent guidance in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and the sterling figures used there do not apply in Ireland.

Psychiatric Damage Generally

The general scale covers recognisable psychiatric conditions that are not classified as PTSD. The bracket turns mainly on the impact on quality of life, education and work, and on prognosis.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is treated separately because it requires a specific diagnosis. The Guidelines confine the category to "a specific diagnosis of a reactive psychiatric disorder following an event which creates psychological trauma" through experiencing or witnessing a terrifying event. Symptoms can include flashbacks, nightmares, avoidance, sleep disturbance and hyperarousal.

Notice that the bands overlap between ladders and within them. Moderate PTSD tops out at €35,000, which is exactly where serious PTSD begins. That overlap is where most contested cases are fought, and it is why the considerations below, rather than the headline figures, usually decide an award.

Which Diagnosis Falls on Which Ladder

Because the two scales carry different figures, the diagnosis decides which table applies. The general scale (4A) covers recognised conditions other than PTSD; the PTSD scale (4B) is reserved for that specific reactive diagnosis. The mapping below reflects how conditions are usually assessed in Irish practice; the Guidelines name PTSD separately but do not list every diagnosis.

The Nine Considerations That Fix Bracket Placement

The figures are ranges, not fixed sums. Chapter 4 lists nine considerations that move an injury up or down within its band:

1. age;
2. interference with quality of life and education;
3. impact on work;
4. impact on interpersonal relationships;
5. whether medical assistance has been sought;
6. the nature, extent and duration of treatment or medication;
7. the likely success of treatment;
8. prognosis, including any future vulnerability;
9. the extent and nature of any associated physical injuries.

In practice, psychiatric injury cases turn on the second and third of those, namely "interference with quality of life and education" and "impact on work". A report documenting an inability to return to work, marked disruption to family relationships and a guarded prognosis is what carries a claim into the moderate band and above. A report describing "anxiety and low mood" without functional detail tends to stay at the lower end.

Psychiatric Injury Valuation in Irish Practice

Psychiatric injury is rarely valued in isolation; it usually sits alongside a physical injury, which is where valuation becomes difficult. The physical injury may come from a road traffic collision, a workplace accident or clinical negligence. Because the Guidelines value each injury separately, simply adding the figures together would over-compensate the claimant.

The method the courts use is the dominant-injury approach, set out in the Guidelines themselves:

"In a case of multiple injuries, the appropriate approach for the trial judge is ... to identify the injury and the bracket of damages within the Guidelines that best resembles the most significant of the claimant's injuries. The trial judge should then value that injury and thereafter uplift the value to ensure that the claimant is fairly and justly compensated for all of the additional pain, discomfort and limitations arising from their lesser injury/injuries."

Personal Injuries Guidelines, Introduction (Judicial Council, 2021)

In short, the judge identifies the most significant injury, values it within its Guidelines bracket, then applies an uplift for the remaining injuries rather than stacking full separate awards. Where the injuries flow from a single event, a discount is applied for the temporal overlap between them. In Irish personal injury practice, a discount of around one third has become a common reference point for closely overlapping injuries. The figure is fact-specific, not a fixed rule.

When psychiatric injury is the dominant injury, it is valued first on its own ladder, on the basis of how the injured person is affected. The physical injuries are then folded in by uplift. That is the structure the Court of Appeal applied in Collins v Parm, discussed below. A nuance the bracket tables do not show: an award that looks correct injury-by-injury can still be wrong overall. The Court of Appeal has directed judges to step back and compare the global figure against awards for other, more serious single injuries as a "reality check" on proportionality. The Guidelines themselves require that "awards must be proportionate to the injuries sustained and must also be proportionate when viewed in the context of awards of damages commonly made" for greater or lesser injuries.

What Questions Does Chapter 4 Leave Unresolved?

Chapter 4 fixes the brackets but leaves three questions open. It does not resolve everything a psychiatric injury claim in Ireland raises. Three questions sit outside the bracket tables, answered instead by recent case law, by the pending reform of the Guidelines, and by the rules on liability and causation. The sections that follow take each in turn.

The Draft Second Edition and the 2026 Reform

The first edition of the Guidelines remains the binding law in May 2026. A revised edition and a new statutory process are both in train, so practitioners need to know which figures apply now and which are merely proposed.

In Delaney v Personal Injuries Assessment Board [2024] IESC 10, a seven-judge Supreme Court confirmed that the Guidelines are binding. The Court held that they should be departed from only where there is no reasonable proportion between a Guidelines figure and the award a judge considers, for stated reasons, should be made.

The Personal Injuries Guidelines Committee completed its first statutory review in 2024, and the draft amended Guidelines published on 11 December 2024 propose an overall increase of 16.7% to reflect inflation since 2021. Applied across the board, that would lift the upper limit of severe psychiatric damage from €170,000 to roughly €198,000. The Guidelines reserve the top of the scale for the gravest cases, stating that "the most devastating and catastrophic of injuries will attract an award of general damages of in or about €550,000". Under the draft, that ceiling would rise to about €642,000. As of May 2026 these figures are proposed only. The Government indicated in 2025 that it would not bring the draft before the Oireachtas for approval, so the 2021 brackets above remain the operative law.

The mechanism for changing the Guidelines also changed. In Delaney the Supreme Court found the Judicial Council's power to make the Guidelines under section 7(2)(g) of the 2019 Act unconstitutional, while holding that the Guidelines were saved because the Oireachtas had given them legal effect. Any amended Guidelines must now be approved by both Houses of the Oireachtas before they take effect.

How the Courts Have Applied the Psychiatric Brackets

The case law shows how strictly the courts now police psychiatric valuation. The brackets are only half the picture. Since 2021 the Court of Appeal has reduced several awards for over-classification and double-counting, and the High Court has refined how causation limits a psychiatric award.

The most recent development concerns causation. The 2025 High Court decision in Sykula v O'Reilly [2025] IEHC 638 (Ferriter J) concerned a plaintiff who developed PTSD symptoms after a minor collision. The court applied the eggshell-skull rule but found that a range of factors unconnected to the accident, including later homelessness and litigation stress, had materially worsened her condition. It apportioned roughly half of the psychiatric injury to those unrelated factors. The case confirms that the eggshell-skull rule applies fully, so a defendant takes the claimant as found, while a court may still apportion where independent factors contributed to the severity or duration of the injury.

Courts will not simply accept a high psychiatric figure. They cross-check it against awards for serious physical injuries, refuse to count the same psychiatric harm twice, and reduce the award where causes other than the accident played a real part.

How Psychiatric Damage Connects to Liability and Other Rules

Valuation and liability are separate questions. The brackets answer how much a psychiatric injury is worth, not whether the claim can be brought at all. Those questions are governed by different rules, and confusing them is a common error.

The liability threshold. Chapter 4 imports the recognisable-injury requirement from Kelly v Hennessy [1995] 3 IR 253. The wider law on who can recover sits outside the Guidelines. That includes the distinction between primary and secondary victims and the rules for those who witness harm to another. Those control mechanisms determine eligibility before any bracket is reached. Our guide to the recognised psychiatric injury requirement under Irish law covers that liability layer in detail.

The board and the courts. Since 2023 the Injuries Resolution Board has been able to assess wholly psychological claims. The Board assesses; the courts award and apply the proportionality discipline described above.

General versus special damages. The Chapter 4 brackets cover general damages for pain and suffering only. Therapy costs, lost earnings and related expenses are recovered separately as special damages and are not subject to these brackets.

Frequently Asked Questions

Key Terms in Psychiatric Injury Valuation

These are the terms that recur when a psychiatric injury is valued under the Guidelines in Ireland.

General damages

Compensation for the pain, suffering and loss of amenity caused by an injury. The Chapter 4 brackets set general damages.

Special damages

Compensation for measurable financial losses, such as therapy costs and lost earnings. These are claimed separately and are not set by the brackets.

Recognisable psychiatric injury

A diagnosed psychiatric condition. The Guidelines permit recovery "only in respect of recognisable psychiatric injury"; ordinary upset does not qualify.

Psychiatric damage generally (4A)

The Guidelines scale for recognised conditions other than PTSD, such as depression, anxiety and adjustment disorder.

Post-traumatic stress disorder (4B)

The Guidelines scale for "a specific diagnosis of a reactive psychiatric disorder" following a terrifying event.

Dominant injury

The most significant injury in a multiple-injury claim. It is valued first, within its own bracket.

Uplift

The amount added to the dominant injury's value to reflect the lesser injuries in the same claim.

Temporal overlap discount

A reduction applied where injuries arise from a single event, to avoid over-compensation.

Solatium

A capped statutory award for the mental distress of a dependant under Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961, distinct from the Chapter 4 brackets.