Domestic Help and Housekeeping Costs After a Car Accident in Ireland

Summary: If you can't vacuum, cook, mow the lawn or carry laundry because of a car accident, you can claim those household costs as special damages in Ireland. A typical 6-month back injury generates €3,000 to €5,000 in recoverable domestic help costs. This applies whether you hire a professional cleaner or your spouse takes over the work for free. Unpaid family help is recoverable under the common-law principle of gratuitous care. You don't need to be bedridden. A medically documented restriction on everyday household tasks is enough.

Contents

What it covers: Cleaning, cooking, laundry, gardening, shopping, DIY, home maintenance. Citizens Information

Family help counts: Unpaid help from a spouse or relative is recoverable at a discounted commercial rate. IRB guidance

Cleaning rate (2026): €15 to €25/hr (Dublin €20 to €25/hr). Indeed.ie

Proof rule: Receipts for paid help. Time log + medical report for gratuitous care. IRB

This information is for educational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Every case is different and outcomes vary. Consult a qualified solicitor for advice specific to your situation. *In contentious business, a solicitor may not calculate fees or other charges as a percentage or proportion of any award or settlement.

What are domestic help costs in an injury claim?

Domestic help costs are the money you spend, or the value of unpaid help you receive, to handle everyday household work you could do before your accident. Irish personal injury law treats these as special damages, which are the out-of-pocket financial losses you can prove and recover from the at-fault party's insurer. The Personal Injuries Guidelines (2021), which replaced the Book of Quantum, deal only with general damages for pain and suffering. They don't cap special damages at all, meaning your domestic help costs are limited only by what's reasonable, medically necessary and properly documented.

After a car accident in Ireland, many people struggle with physical tasks they previously handled without thinking. A back sprain can stop you lifting laundry or bending to load a dishwasher. A fractured wrist makes cooking or holding a vacuum impossible. A shoulder injury rules out mowing the lawn or reaching to clean windows. These restrictions often last weeks or months, and sometimes become permanent with spinal or neurological injuries.

The cost of replacing that lost household capacity is recoverable in two ways. If you pay a professional cleaning agency or gardener, those invoiced amounts go directly into your special damages schedule. If your partner, parent or friend does the work without payment, Irish law still recognises the financial value of their time through the principle of gratuitous care.

There is also a non-financial dimension. Even if you don't hire help and simply endure a messy house, reduced meals or an overgrown garden, the inability itself to manage your household is recognised as a loss of amenity under general damages (Personal Injuries Guidelines, 2021). This means the same set of restrictions can ground both a special damages claim (for the cost of help) and a general damages uplift (for the impact on your quality of life). The two don't cancel each other out.

What household tasks can you claim for?

Irish courts recognise a broad range of everyday household work as recoverable when an injury prevents you from doing it yourself. These are sometimes called Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs), a clinical term distinguishing them from the personal care tasks (bathing, dressing) that fall under Activities of Daily Living (ADLs). The following table groups the most common claimable tasks by category.

Household tasks claimable as special damages after an accident in Ireland

Category	Tasks
Kitchen	Cooking, meal preparation, washing up, grocery shopping, putting away shopping
Cleaning	Vacuuming, mopping, bathroom cleaning, kitchen cleaning, dusting, tidying
Laundry	Washing, drying, ironing, changing bed linen, carrying laundry baskets
Garden	Lawn mowing, hedge trimming, weeding, watering, planting, exterior window cleaning
Home maintenance	Gutter cleaning, changing light bulbs, minor repairs, drain clearing, painting
Errands	Pharmacy runs, post office, school drop-offs, pet walking, bin collection
Seasonal	Deep cleaning, garden winterising, annual gutter clearance, decorating
Household management	Meal planning, making shopping lists, coordinating school schedules, booking tradespeople, managing household bills, organising children's activities

The final category is the one most people overlook entirely. Planning, coordinating and organising a household takes real time. After a concussion, traumatic brain injury, or even heavy pain medication, these cognitive tasks can become impossible. A family member who takes over the mental load of running the household is providing genuine, claimable help, not just the physical tasks.

You do not need to claim for every task on this list. What matters is demonstrating that specific tasks were impossible or medically inadvisable because of your accident injuries, and that someone else had to do them instead. A medical report linking the injury to the restriction on each category is the critical first step.

Which injuries affect which household tasks?

Different car accident injuries restrict different types of housework. This reference table connects common injuries to the specific tasks they typically prevent, based on functional limitations reported in medical evidence.

Common car accident injuries mapped to household tasks they restrict

Injury	Tasks typically restricted	Why
Lower back injury / herniated disc	Vacuuming, mopping, loading dishwasher, lifting shopping bags, carrying laundry baskets, gardening (bending, digging)	Forward bending, twisting and lifting are painful or medically restricted
Shoulder injury / rotator cuff	Hanging laundry, cleaning windows, reaching high shelves, painting, hedge trimming, carrying children	Overhead reaching and lifting above shoulder height are restricted
Wrist or hand fracture	Cooking, gripping a vacuum, wringing cloths, opening jars, using garden tools, minor DIY	Grip strength, rotation and weight-bearing through the wrist are compromised
Knee injury / ligament damage	Kneeling to clean floors, climbing stairs with laundry, gardening (weeding, planting), squatting to load washing machine	Bending, kneeling and weight-bearing on the affected leg are restricted
Whiplash / cervical spine	Ironing for extended periods, cleaning high surfaces, driving to shops, looking down to cook or chop	Sustained neck positions, overhead work and driving are painful
Concussion / mild TBI	Meal planning, managing bills, coordinating schedules, grocery shopping (sensory overload), multitasking	Cognitive fatigue, difficulty concentrating, sensitivity to noise and light
Rib fractures	Vacuuming (pushing motion), carrying anything heavy, bending, coughing-intensive tasks (dusty cleaning)	Deep breathing, twisting and any chest-wall pressure are painful

This table is a guide, not a medical assessment. Your doctor's Form B report should confirm which specific tasks you cannot perform. Showing your doctor this type of breakdown can help them write a more detailed and useful report for your claim.

How much does domestic help cost in Ireland? (2026 rates)

The hourly rate you or your solicitor uses to calculate domestic help costs depends on what type of service is needed and on your location in Ireland. These benchmarks are drawn from employment data and service provider pricing in 2025 and 2026.

Typical hourly rates for domestic help services in Ireland (2026)

Service	National rate (per hour)	Dublin rate (per hour)	Source
Domestic cleaning	€15 to €20	€20 to €25	Indeed.ie (Oct 2025)
Gardening / lawn care	€25 to €40	€30 to €50	Garden Maintenance Ireland (2024)
Home care (via agency)	€20 to €30	€28 to €35	UIH (Aug 2025)
Handyman / minor DIY	€30 to €45	€35 to €50	Market research (2025)
Ironing service	€15 to €20	€18 to €22	Market research (2025)

The legal minimum matters here. Ireland's national minimum wage rose to €14.15 per hour from 1 January 2026. The SIPTU Employment Regulation Order for the cleaning sector sets a separate minimum of €14.80 per hour from January 2026. These statutory rates provide a hard floor when calculating the cost of domestic cleaning help for your claim.

Do weekends and bank holidays attract higher rates?

For paid professional help, yes. Home care agencies typically charge premium rates for Sundays and bank holidays. One provider charges €26.80/hr on Sundays compared to €19.80/hr on weekdays (UIH, August 2025). If you hire a paid cleaner or carer on a Sunday, your claim should reflect the actual premium rate you paid. For gratuitous family care, courts generally do not apply weekend premiums to the notional rate. Your spouse cooking Sunday dinner because of your back injury is valued at the same discounted hourly rate regardless of the day. The distinction matters: if you need help seven days a week, the paid vs gratuitous split can materially affect the total.

Can you claim for unpaid family help? (Gratuitous care explained)

Yes. This is one of the most under-claimed parts of Irish personal injury cases. If your spouse, parent, adult child or friend takes over the cooking, cleaning or gardening because of your injuries, the value of that help is recoverable as special damages. The law calls this gratuitous care.

The legal basis is straightforward: a negligent driver should not benefit financially because your family stepped in to help for free. Irish courts follow the principle established in Donnelly v Joyce [1974] QB 454, which holds that the injured person can recover the reasonable cost of care provided without charge. The money recovered is technically held on trust for the family member who provided the care (Hunt v Severs [1994] 2 AC 350).

How is gratuitous care valued?

Courts start with the commercial hourly rate for the equivalent service in your area. They then apply a discount of 25% to 33% to reflect that a family member doesn't carry insurance, employer PRSI, agency overheads or travel costs. This produces a "notional rate" for the gratuitous help.

Paid professional help vs gratuitous family help in Irish injury claims

Factor	Paid professional help	Gratuitous family help
Hourly rate	Full commercial rate (e.g. €20 to €25/hr cleaning)	Commercial rate minus 25% to 33% (e.g. €15 to €19/hr)
Evidence needed	Receipts, invoices, bank statements	Carer time log, medical report, witness statement
Who gets the money	Reimburses you directly	Paid to you but held on trust for the carer
Threshold	Must be medically necessary and reasonable	Must be above and beyond normal family duties

What if you didn't hire anyone and just struggled through?

You can still claim. Irish courts recognise that some people push through household chores despite pain, either because they can't afford a cleaner or because they feel they should manage. In Daly v General Steam Navigation [1981] 1 WLR 120, the court established that loss of housekeeping capacity is a recoverable head of damage in its own right, even where the plaintiff did not hire professional help. Mrs Daly was awarded £8,736 for her future partial loss of housekeeping capacity, calculated by reference to the cost of replacing the domestic work she could no longer do. The principle protects people who would otherwise be penalised for toughing it out.

When a family member gives up work to help you

There is an alternative valuation method that can produce a higher figure. If a family member actually reduces their paid working hours or takes unpaid leave to provide domestic help, their actual lost wages can be claimed instead of the discounted notional rate. The Daly case confirmed this: the court accepted the husband's actual lost earnings (from giving up part-time work to care for his wife) as the correct measure. If your daughter earns €18/hr and takes two weeks off work to help you, claiming her actual lost wages may exceed the gratuitous care rate of €15 to €17/hr. Your solicitor should calculate both the notional rate and the actual lost earnings, then claim whichever figure is higher. The key requirement is proof: payslips showing the reduction, a letter from the employer confirming the absence, and the medical report linking the absence to your needs.

The duty to mitigate: what's "reasonable" help?

Under Section 34 of the Civil Liability Act 1961, you have a duty to keep your losses to a reasonable minimum. For domestic help, this means the help you claim must be proportionate to your injury. If you sprain your wrist and hire a full-time live-in housekeeper at €35/hr when a standard cleaner for three hours a week at €20/hr would cover the tasks you can't do, the court will cap your recovery at the lower, reasonable rate. The test is: what would a sensible person in your position have spent? (Citizens Information, 2025).

The "above and beyond" rule. A spouse occasionally cooking dinner is normal family life. A spouse taking over 100% of the heavy cleaning, all the laundry and all the grocery shopping for three months because you have a herniated disc is an extraordinary burden. Only the extra work caused by the injury counts.

We call this the Domestic Capacity Gap: the measurable difference between what you could do around the house before the accident and what you can do now. Documenting this gap, task by task and hour by hour, is how your solicitor builds the domestic help component of your special damages schedule. The wider the gap and the longer it persists, the higher the recoverable amount.

Unlike the UK system where limitation periods run for three years under the Limitation Act 1980, in Ireland you have only two years from the date of the accident (or date of knowledge) under the Statute of Limitations 1957 to bring your claim, including any domestic help costs. This shorter window makes early documentation even more critical.

What evidence do you need to prove domestic help costs?

The Injuries Resolution Board (IRB), formerly known as PIAB, operates on a strict "no vouchers, no payment" basis under Section 50 of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003. Your special damages claim for domestic help is only as strong as your documentation.

For paid professional help

Keep every invoice, receipt and bank statement showing payments to cleaning agencies, gardeners, handymen or home care providers. Each receipt should show the date, the provider's name, the service performed and the amount paid. If you pay cash, ask the provider for a written receipt. Cash payments without any paper trail are extremely difficult to recover.

For gratuitous family help

Create a domestic help time log from the start of your recovery. Record:

Sample domestic help time log for a gratuitous care claim

Date	Carer name	Tasks performed	Hours
e.g. 12 Jan 2026	Mary (spouse)	Vacuumed all rooms, mopped kitchen, carried laundry upstairs, cooked dinner	3.5
e.g. 14 Jan 2026	John (son)	Mowed front and back lawn, trimmed hedge, cleared gutters	4.0

Pair this log with a medical report that specifically mentions household restrictions. If your doctor's Form B report says only "neck pain, improving" without noting that you can't vacuum, lift or cook, the insurer will challenge your domestic help claim. Tell your doctor exactly which household tasks you cannot do. The medical report is the bridge between injury and your Domestic Capacity Gap.

A short witness statement from the carer also helps. It should confirm what tasks they performed, how many hours per week, and that these were tasks you handled yourself before the accident. See our detailed guide to receipts and proof for injury claims.

When multiple family members help

If your spouse handles the cooking, your adult daughter does the cleaning, and your neighbour mows the lawn, log each carer separately with their own tasks and hours. Combined gratuitous care from three people often totals more hours per week than a single professional would provide, and each carer's contribution is valued independently at the relevant commercial rate. A cleaning hour is valued at the cleaning rate. A gardening hour is valued at the gardening rate. Bundling them all under one flat rate undervalues the claim.

How do you include domestic help in your IRB application?

When you submit your claim to the Injuries Resolution Board (IRB), formerly known as PIAB, you must attach a schedule of special damages to your Form A application. Domestic help costs go into this schedule. If you leave them out of the initial application or fail to update your schedule before the IRB makes its assessment, you risk losing the right to recover these costs entirely.

Unlike in England and Wales, where claims proceed directly between solicitors under the Civil Procedure Rules pre-action protocol, in Ireland most personal injury claims must go through the IRB for an independent assessment before any court proceedings can start. This means your special damages schedule, including domestic help, must be comprehensive from the outset. The IRB typically completes assessments within nine months from the date the respondent consents. That creates a tight window. Start documenting domestic help costs from day one, not after you instruct a solicitor.

The next step after the IRB assessment is deciding whether to accept or reject it. If you reject, you can proceed to court, where a judge can award higher (or lower) amounts for domestic help based on full evidence.

Future domestic help costs for long-term injuries

Most car accident claims involve temporary injuries where domestic help is needed for weeks or months. However, severe spinal injuries, traumatic brain injuries, complex fractures or amputations can result in a permanent loss of housekeeping capacity. When medical evidence confirms a lasting restriction, the claim for domestic help extends into the future.

Irish courts use an actuarial method to calculate the present-day value of future domestic help.

The multiplicand is your established annual cost of domestic help. For example, 4 hours of cleaning per week at €22/hr = €4,576 per year.

The multiplier is a figure produced by a forensic actuary based on your life expectancy, drawn from standard mortality tables.

The discount rate adjusts for the time value of money. Irish courts currently apply a 1% discount rate for future care costs (which includes domestic help) and 1.5% for future loss of earnings (Kennedys Law, July 2024).

In catastrophic cases, an occupational therapist's report is often used to establish exactly what household tasks you can and can't perform, how many hours of help you need per week, and whether that need will increase over time. If the total projected cost is very large, the court may consider a Periodic Payment Order (annual indexed payments) instead of a lump sum, to protect against the risk of the money running out.

At this point, you'll need to decide whether to accept the IRB assessment or proceed to court, where a judge can order future domestic help costs based on full actuarial evidence. See our guide to settlement offers for more on how these calculations affect your final figure.

How do you calculate your domestic help claim? (Step by step)

Irish courts and the IRB expect domestic help costs to be calculated methodically, not estimated in round numbers. The following formula applies to both paid and gratuitous help claims in Ireland.

Step 1: List every restricted task. Write down each household task you can no longer perform because of the accident. Use the injury-to-task mapping above as a starting point, but be specific to your situation.

Step 2: Estimate weekly hours for each task. How long did each task take you before the accident? A realistic weekly breakdown might be: vacuuming and mopping (2 hours), cooking and washing up (7 hours), laundry (2 hours), grocery shopping (2 hours), gardening (2 hours in summer, less in winter). The CSO's National Time Use Survey indicates the average Irish adult spends roughly 15 hours per week on unpaid household work. If your claimed total sits within that range, it looks proportionate. If your claim is significantly above it, be prepared to explain why with specific detail.

Step 3: Match each task to the correct commercial rate. Cleaning tasks use the cleaning rate (€15 to €25/hr). Gardening tasks use the gardening rate (€25 to €50/hr). Don't apply a flat rate across all tasks. A gardening hour is worth more than a laundry hour because the commercial replacement cost is higher.

Step 4: Apply the 25% discount for gratuitous care. If a family member performs the task without payment, reduce the commercial rate by 25% to 33% to arrive at the notional rate. Skip this step for tasks you pay a professional to do.

Step 5: Multiply by weeks of restriction. Multiply the weekly cost by the number of weeks you needed (or will need) the help. Don't assume a flat duration. See Step 6.

Step 6: Taper for recovery. Most injuries improve over time. A flat claim of "10 hours per week for 26 weeks" looks less credible than a phased schedule that mirrors a real recovery curve. Structure the claim in stages: full restriction in weeks 1 to 8, moderate restriction in weeks 9 to 16, light restriction in weeks 17 to 26. This tapered approach reflects clinical reality and is harder for an insurer to challenge.

Worked examples: how domestic help costs add up

These examples show how domestic help costs build up for different injury severities. All figures are illustrative and based on 2026 market rates. Actual amounts depend on individual circumstances.

Worked examples of domestic help costs at different injury levels

Scenario	Duration	Weekly help	Rate applied	Approximate total
Whiplash, 8-week recovery. Spouse does extra cleaning and cooking.	8 weeks	6 hrs gratuitous	€17/hr (commercial minus 25%)	€816
Back injury, 6-month recovery. Hired cleaner 3 hrs/week + spouse does gardening and cooking.	26 weeks	3 hrs paid (€22/hr) + 5 hrs gratuitous (€17/hr)	Mixed	€3,926
Severe spinal injury, permanent restriction. Needs cleaner, gardener and periodic handyman for life.	Lifetime (actuarial)	8 hrs paid (€22/hr avg)	Full commercial	€9,152/year. Lump sum depends on age and multiplier

Even a moderate whiplash case can produce domestic help costs of several hundred euro. A six-month back injury recovery commonly generates €3,000 to €5,000. The Domestic Capacity Gap grows with injury severity and duration. These amounts sit on top of your general damages award for pain and suffering, and they don't reduce or interact with it.

Phased recovery: a more realistic calculation

The back injury example above uses a flat rate across 26 weeks. A tapered schedule looks more credible and often produces a similar or higher total because the early weeks carry higher hours.

Phased domestic help schedule for a 6-month back injury recovery

Recovery phase	Weeks	Paid help (hrs/wk)	Gratuitous help (hrs/wk)	Phase cost
Acute (weeks 1 to 8)	8	4 hrs at €22/hr	8 hrs at €17/hr	€1,792
Improving (weeks 9 to 16)	8	3 hrs at €22/hr	5 hrs at €17/hr	€1,208
Late recovery (weeks 17 to 26)	10	2 hrs at €22/hr	2 hrs at €17/hr	€780
Total				€3,780

This phased approach mirrors how injuries actually heal. Insurers find it harder to challenge because it matches the medical timeline and doesn't assume a sudden stop to all help on a single date.

What mistakes reduce your domestic help claim?

Not telling the doctor about household restrictions. If your medical report doesn't mention that you can't vacuum, cook or garden, the insurer will dispute the entire domestic help claim. Be explicit with your doctor about which tasks are affected.

Paying cash with no record. If you pay a cleaner €20/hr in cash and keep no receipt, the IRB cannot accept that expense. Always get a written receipt or use bank transfer.

Starting the log late. A time log started three months after the accident looks reconstructed. Start recording gratuitous care from day one. A contemporaneous log has far more weight than a retrospective estimate.

Accepting an early settlement. Insurers sometimes offer quick, low settlements before the full extent of your domestic help needs becomes clear. If you accept and later discover you need a gardener for six months because of an unresolved shoulder injury, you cannot reopen the claim. Domestic help needs are particularly prone to this trap: in the first weeks after an accident, adrenaline and pain medication can mask how much you're struggling at home. The true Domestic Capacity Gap often only becomes visible once you try to resume normal household routines at 6 to 10 weeks. Wait until your condition has stabilised before agreeing any figure. See our guide on whether to settle or go to court.

Claiming for help you already received before the accident. If you already had a cleaner for three hours a week before the accident, you can only claim for additional hours above that baseline. Claiming the full amount creates a credibility problem that can damage your wider claim.

Not knowing about the collateral benefits rule. The general rule under Section 2 of the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 1964 is that insurance payouts, pensions and similar benefits are not deducted from your damages award. However, there is an important exception for car accident claims: under Section 286 of the Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, disability benefit and invalidity pension received in the five years after the accident ARE taken into account when the court assesses overall damages in motor vehicle cases. This mainly affects the lost earnings head of damage rather than domestic help costs specifically, but your solicitor should factor it into the overall claim calculation. Other social welfare payments (such as Illness Benefit or Carer's Benefit) and private insurance payouts remain non-deductible under the 1964 Act.

How does contributory negligence affect your domestic help claim?

If a court finds you were partly at fault for the accident, your entire compensation award is reduced proportionately under Section 34 of the Civil Liability Act 1961. That reduction applies to special damages too, not just general damages for pain and suffering. Many claimants don't realise this.

Worked example. You accumulate €4,000 in fully vouched domestic help costs over a six-month recovery. The court finds you were 20% at fault (for example, for not wearing a seatbelt). Your recoverable domestic help amount drops to €3,200. If you had €800 in gratuitous care from your spouse on top of that, it drops from €800 to €640. Every euro of domestic help is subject to the same percentage cut as the rest of your award.

The timing matters more than most guides suggest: if the insurer raises contributory negligence early in negotiations, it affects the entire settlement calculation, including your domestic help costs. Defending against a contributory negligence finding protects every head of damage, not just the headline figure.

How do insurers challenge domestic help claims?

Understanding how the other side thinks protects your claim. Insurers use four main tactics to reduce or reject domestic help costs in Irish personal injury cases.

Social media surveillance. An insurer's claims handler or investigator may review your Facebook, Instagram and TikTok profiles for photos or posts that contradict your claimed restrictions. A photo of you carrying shopping bags, working in the garden, or attending a social event can be used to argue you overstated your Domestic Capacity Gap. The safest approach during an active claim: don't post anything showing physical activity, and set all profiles to private. This practice is expressly permitted under the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, which imposes penalties for exaggerating or fabricating claims.

Private investigators. In higher-value claims, insurers may instruct a private investigator to film you going about your daily life. If you claim you can't mow the lawn but are filmed pushing a lawnmower, the entire domestic help schedule loses credibility. This doesn't mean you can never do anything. It means your claim must accurately reflect what you can and cannot do on a consistent basis, not just on your worst days.

Independent medical examination (IME). The insurer's doctor may examine you and conclude that your functional restrictions are less severe than your own doctor reported. If the IME report says you can vacuum with minor discomfort, your claim for 3 hours of paid cleaning per week faces a direct challenge. Your solicitor can counter this with a detailed report from your treating consultant that explains specifically why the tasks remain restricted, using the functional language described in the Form B section above.

Challenging the hours as excessive. Insurers sometimes compare claimed hours against published time-use data to argue the total is inflated. The CSO's National Time Use Survey shows the average Irish adult spends roughly 15 hours per week on unpaid household work. A claim for 20 hours per week of domestic help for a moderate soft-tissue injury will face close scrutiny. A claim for 10 to 12 hours for the same injury sits comfortably within the expected range and is much harder to challenge.

When is domestic help NOT claimable?

Domestic help costs are not recoverable in every situation. Knowing the boundaries strengthens your claim by avoiding challenges that can undermine credibility.

You already lived with family who did the housework. If you're a 22-year-old living with parents who already cooked, cleaned and did your laundry before the accident, you have no Domestic Capacity Gap for those tasks. You can't claim for help you never provided yourself. The exception: if you did specific tasks (mowing the garden, taking out bins, doing grocery runs) that now fall to your parents because of the injury, those specific tasks are claimable.

Psychological injury only, with no physical restriction on household tasks. If your injury is entirely psychological (anxiety, PTSD, depression) and doesn't prevent you from physically cleaning, cooking or gardening, a domestic help claim is hard to sustain. However, if a consultant psychiatrist confirms that your psychological condition renders you unable to perform household tasks (for example, severe PTSD preventing you from driving to the shops or leaving the house to garden), a claim may be possible with strong medical evidence. The Personal Injuries Guidelines (2021) include separate brackets for psychiatric damage, and the IRB reported that psychiatric injury claims rose from 5% to 14% of total claims between 2021 and 2024.

Pre-existing condition already requiring the same level of help. If you already had a back condition requiring a cleaner three days a week, the accident didn't create the need for that help. You can only claim for any increase in help above your pre-existing baseline.

The help was not caused by the accident. If you hire a gardener six months after the accident but your medical evidence shows you were fully recovered at four months, the final two months of gardening costs are not causally connected to the accident and won't be allowed.

Tax relief on employing a carer (Revenue Form HK1)

If you or a family member employs a carer for a person who is "totally incapacitated by reason of physical or mental infirmity," Revenue allows tax relief at your marginal rate (20% or 40%) on the cost of that employment, up to €75,000 per year. You claim this through the HK1 form.

This relief can significantly reduce the net cost of long-term domestic help. However, it does not reduce your special damages claim. You claim the gross cost of employing a carer from the at-fault insurer. The tax relief is a separate matter between you and Revenue.

If you employ a carer directly rather than using an agency, you become an employer and must register with Revenue, operate PAYE, and comply with minimum wage and employment rights legislation.

Personal care vs housekeeping: where the line falls

This page covers housekeeping tasks only. If your injury also requires help with personal care (bathing, dressing, toileting, mobility, medication management), that's a separate head of damage. It's often valued at a higher hourly rate because it requires trained carers rather than domestic cleaners. See our guide to care and assistance costs for the full picture on personal care claims.

In practice, many people with moderate injuries need help with both housekeeping and some personal care, especially in the early weeks of recovery. Your solicitor should make sure these are pleaded as distinct items in the special damages schedule, not bundled together. This leads to the broader question of how all your special damages categories combine into your total claim figure.

What to consider next

How does my Domestic Capacity Gap interact with my general damages award?

Your domestic help costs (special damages) sit entirely on top of your general damages for pain and suffering. The Personal Injuries Guidelines (2021) only cap general damages. Special damages are uncapped and assessed separately. A claimant with moderate whiplash might receive €12,000 in general damages plus €4,000 in domestic help costs, for a total of €16,000.

Should I hire a professional cleaner or rely on family help?

Both are claimable, but the choice affects evidence requirements. Professional help produces clear invoices. Gratuitous care requires a time log and medical corroboration. One aspect the official guidance doesn't cover: in practice, insurers tend to challenge gratuitous claims less when they're supported by at least some paid receipts alongside the family time log.

What if I was already struggling with housework before the accident?

Pre-existing conditions don't bar your claim, but they affect how much you can recover. You can only claim for the additional domestic help caused by the accident, not for help you already needed. If you had a cleaner once a week before the accident and now need three times a week, you can claim the extra two sessions. Medical evidence distinguishing accident-related restrictions from pre-existing limitations is essential.

References

1. Citizens Information: Negligence and compensation (accessed 2025)
2. Injuries Resolution Board: Making a claim (accessed 2025)
3. Judicial Council: Personal Injuries Guidelines (April 2021)
4. Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003, s.50
5. Citizens Information: Minimum wage (January 2026)
6. SIPTU: Cleaning sector ERO (September 2025)
7. Indeed.ie: House cleaner salary Ireland (October 2025)
8. Garden Maintenance Ireland: Gardener rates (2024)
9. Revenue.ie: Employing a carer (accessed 2025)
10. Citizens Information: Injuries Resolution Board (accessed 2025)
11. Citizens Information: Domestic workers' employment rights (accessed 2025)
12. Civil Liability Act 1961, s.34
13. Civil Liability (Amendment) Act 1964, s.2
14. Injuries Resolution Board: Annual report data (2024)
15. Daly v General Steam Navigation [1981] 1 WLR 120
16. CSO: National Time Use Survey data
17. Social Welfare Consolidation Act 2005, s.286
18. Kennedys Law: Discount rates in Ireland confirmed at 1% and 1.5% (July 2024)
19. Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004
20. McCarthy & Co: Personal injury trends in 2025 (August 2025)

Common questions about domestic help costs in Irish injury claims