Ms Dorothea Dowling:

The acceptance rate of Injuries Board awards has been stable for the past eight years at 61%. That is a hard piece of data. I have listened to what Mr. Carty stated. Part of the reason that the industry has not supported the Injuries Board is because the industry does that sort of thing. With the assistance of the Houses of the Oireachtas, we introduced amending legislation. If one rejects the award, which is a statutory award and has the same status as a court order, it stands as a tender or lodgement. If one does not get more, one is at risk in terms of both sets of costs. Short-termism on the part of the insurance industry means that it offers someone €600 for fees. It is the same amount of compensation. This is a hypothetical example. The person will not accept the Injuries Board award tomorrow because the industry has just told him or her that it will pay a little bit more if he or she rejects the award.

There should be a higher level of consent to Injuries Board awards, since only 6% of claims go to trial. Given what someone called the bizarre behaviour of underwriters, however, the Injuries Board does not have full data. It should have full data on all claims in 94% of cases. I do not know whether this was a strategic decision on the part of the industry but I will say no more on that. Mr. Carty is correct about the cost-benefit analysis. If one engages in short-termism, one must consider the cost of going ahead with something.

When I worked in the self-insured sector and we were an identifiable defendant, one would go all the way with it because two messages would go out quickly, the first of which was "soft touch". The second was that, if we went hard at them, got an award for costs and went to collect €5 from them every Friday night, they would be asking whether we had nothing better to be doing. They would be in the pub complaining about a utility coming to collect €5 every week. This sends out a good message to the effect that it is not a free ride and there are downsides. However, the insurance industry does not follow this type of model like it used to in the old days when I worked in the industry.