does he feel 10k is fair recompense for the actual injuries/damage he's sustained, or does he just want to bleed as much cash as he can from the insurer?

No he doesn't think its fair - he's still in pain and having treatment.  It was me who pushed him to see a solicitor, he isn't money grabbing at all.  Just a simple old Irish guy.

I've googled and there's meant to be a govt-run personal injury assessment service thing in Ireland, to avoid lawyers?  Did he follow that process?  

I'm not a PI guy - but hard to get a sense of whether EURO10k is sufficient to cover, without any understanding of the past and ongoing injury and [ROF MODE] 10k would barely cover a new carbon fibre bike frame!

Thanks Jelly, yes I've looked as well but it's not like there is one injury - there are several so it's really hard to determine.  No I advised him to go straight to a solicitor.  Poor guy had one of those really old fashioned 3 speed bikes that you can no longer buy, he told the solicitor it would be about 200 for a new bike but I told him he wouldn't get one for that price at all.

Is there a contributory negligence issue or significant litigation risk? if so that will push down settlement offers. 

If liability is not in issue (and I suppose in any event), he should be able to reasonably quantify his special damages and provide evidence for them. It will then be much harder to lowball him with the offers. 

No contributory negligence, liability not in issue.  He's only been told today he will need to do the physio exercises for the rest of his life so that factor obv hasn't been taken into account and he only just found out.  Thanks for responding.