The personal injury time limit in Ireland: two years and the date of knowledge

You want to know how long you have. The answer in Ireland is two years, with four things that can move the date: the date of knowledge, the Board pause, the children's rule, and a separate one-month letter that is not a limit but has consequences. This guide sets out each, in the words of the Acts, and ends with what "out of time" means and does not mean.

The two years

Section 3 of the Statute of Limitations (Amendment) Act 1991, as substituted by section 7 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004, says that an action claiming damages for personal injuries caused by negligence, nuisance or breach of duty shall not be brought after the expiration of two years from the date on which the cause of action accrued, or the date of knowledge of the person injured, if later.

The period was three years until 31 March 2005. Older articles and older advice still say three. For any accident since that date, it is two.

The cause of action accrues when the injury happens. For a road collision, a fall or a dog bite, that is the day of the accident. The two years run from then unless the date of knowledge is later.

The last safe day

Two years from 14 October 2026 is 14 October 2028. Most practitioners treat the day before the second anniversary as the last safe day for issuing proceedings, so that no argument about how the days are counted can arise. Nobody plans to issue on the last day; the Board's process, the medical report and the Authorisation all take time, and the pause described below exists because of that.

The date of knowledge

The two years run from the date of knowledge where that is later than the accident. Section 2 of the 1991 Act defines it as the date on which the person first had knowledge of these facts:

• that they had been injured;
• that the injury was significant;
• that the injury was attributable in whole or in part to the act or omission alleged to be negligence, nuisance or breach of duty;
• the identity of the defendant;
• where the act or omission was someone else's, that person's identity and the facts supporting an action against the defendant.

Knowledge of whether the act was negligent in law is not needed. Knowledge includes what the person could reasonably have been expected to find out from facts observable or ascertainable by them, or with the help of medical or other expert advice it was reasonable to seek. A fact a person could only have learned through expert advice counts against them only if they failed to take that advice when it was reasonable to.

For a single accident, the date of knowledge and the date of the accident are nearly always the same day: you knew you were hurt, you knew it was the collision, you knew who the other driver was. The date of knowledge matters most where the injury emerges later or its cause is not obvious at first: a repetitive strain diagnosed years into a job, a hearing loss, a condition attributed to treatment only when a second doctor says so, a disc injury that a scan explains months after a fall. The repetitive strain guide and the medical negligence guide deal with those.

The date of knowledge is not a general extension. A person who knew the four facts on the day of the accident does not get more time because they did not know how bad the injury would turn out to be. "Significant" is a low threshold, and the courts have applied it as one.

The Board pause

Nearly every personal injury claim must go to the Injuries Resolution Board (still searched as PIAB; see the glossary) before court. Because the Board's process takes months, section 50 of the 2003 Act says that in reckoning the two years, the period from the date the application is made to the Board until six months after the date the Board issues its Authorisation is disregarded.

Three points matter. The application only counts once it is signed and carries the confirmations section 11(3A) requires; an incomplete application does not stop the clock. The pause applies to the respondents named in the application, so a respondent added later has their own pause from the date they were added. And the six months after the Authorisation are added to whatever was left of the two years when the application was made. The Board pause guide works through the dates with examples.

The one-month letter

Section 8 of the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 asks for something different from a limit. Within one month of the cause of action, a person intending to claim must serve a written notice on the wrongdoer stating the nature of the wrong alleged. The month was two until 28 January 2019.

Missing it does not bar the claim. Where the notice is not served within the month without reasonable cause, the court shall draw such inferences from the failure as appear proper and, where the interests of justice require, may make no order as to the plaintiff's costs or deduct from them. The section 8 guide explains the letter and the letter builder writes it in the statutory terms.

Children and capacity

Time does not run against a person while they are under 18, under section 49 of the Statute of Limitations 1957. The two years start on the eighteenth birthday. A parent or guardian can claim earlier as next friend, and any settlement or assessment for a child must be approved by a court. Time also does not run while a person is of unsound mind within the meaning of the 1957 Act. The children and capacity guide sets out the rules and why a solicitor is the usual step.

The other clocks

A dependants' claim after a death is brought under Part IV of the Civil Liability Act 1961 within two years of the death, as the fatal accidents guide explains.

An application to the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal must be made within two years of the incident. Since the 2021 Scheme that limit is absolute: there is no extension, no date of knowledge and no Board pause. The Scheme is being amended in 2026 to cover pain and suffering following the Court of Justice of the European Union's ruling; the changes page tracks the commencement. The criminal injuries guide covers the Scheme and the separate civil claim against an identified attacker.

A member of An Garda Síochána injured maliciously on duty applies to the Garda Commissioner within six months under the Garda Síochána (Compensation) Act 2022, and the claim is then assessed by the Board.

Medical negligence has the same two-year clock from the date of knowledge, and is excluded from the Board. Section 221 of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015 would make it three years for clinical negligence, but it has not been commenced.

What out of time means

The limit is a defence, not a bar that operates by itself. A claim brought after two years can still be issued, but the respondent can plead the Statute, and if the plea succeeds the claim is dismissed whatever its merits. In practice an insurer that sees a claim out of time pleads it.

Before concluding that you are out of time, three questions are worth asking: whether your date of knowledge was later than the accident, whether a Board application paused the clock, and whether you were under 18 or lacked capacity at the time. A solicitor would weigh each, and a claim that looks out of time on the accident date sometimes is not.

What a solicitor cannot do is create time where none of those apply. The courts have no general discretion to extend the two years in a personal injury action. That is why the first week matters, why the Board application is made well inside the two years, and why the date is written down at the start.

Where this leaves you

You have the two years, the date of knowledge, the pause, the children's rule and the one-month letter. The time-limit checker takes your accident date, your date of knowledge if different, and your Board dates if you have them, and gives the last safe day, the section 8 date and a calendar reminder.