Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Justice, Defence and Equality

Small Claims and Payment Procedures: Motion

12:30 pm

Photo of Alan ShatterAlan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I will take the last question first. Yes, once these facilities are available to help people resolve small claims disputes, it is important to have the maximum public knowledge of them. Some of the consumer bodies publicise this from time to time. It is not an issue that generates major media excitement. The problem in publicising anything nowadays is that unless something arises that becomes a media focus, be it in print media, television or radio, people tend not to know about it. Unless people look for the website they will not find the information. I am happy to encourage any of the agencies that seek to assist consumers to publicise the availability of this matter. It is on the court’s website, and in the EU practitioner's guide, and it will be in the EU user’s guide, which will be available shortly, all online. The problem is if I have paid for a holiday that does not work out, I would not necessarily search for these sites.

I mentioned that the European Commission envisaged a fee of something like €35. There are technical legal reasons it may be outside the Commission’s competence to specify the fee. It is important for consumers and business that the fees are not set at an unnecessary level. I am also conscious that in our present circumstances, the funding available to me for court services is not likely to increase any time soon beyond the additional funding we will have for the establishment of the Court of Appeal. It will be important to bring in revenue to try to make some of the services more self-financing than they are. I would not see major changes in our fee levels, but if we increase them to between €3,000 and €5,000, I would be very tempted and do not think it would create any great barrier or be unreasonable to increase our fee from €25 to €35.

When agreement is reached at EU level, there may be a case to be made that we should fix a fee that is proportionate to the claim made, provided it is a modest fee. For example, if someone made a claim of €6,000, I would not see it as a major barrier if the fee were 10% or some proportion of it. That would not be unreasonable. We need to think about this and ensure we do not create barriers. I am probably getting my percentages wrong because for a claim of €6,000, I would envisage a fee of €60 rather than €600. There is a reasonable case if we increase our jurisdiction to increase our fees modestly and reconsider that later, on the assumption that the EU does not ultimately agree a global fee across member states, although it may be outside the competence for that to be fixed.

We all have an interest in the fees not being unduly high in some member states. Even if it cannot be dealt with by way of a legal instrument, it would be in the interests of businesses and consumers across the Union if there was informal agreement between member states that they would fix their fees but not beyond a certain amount. I would not be unhappy if it was discovered that although there may be technical issues, they do not prevent some sort of arrangements being agreed that ensure fees do not become excessive.

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