Ms Dorothea Dowling:

It is a matter of consistency of messaging. If the industry is telling this Oireachtas joint committee and brokers that High Court awards have gone up by 34%, it must be telling staff that they have to pay more in cases that could go to the High Courts. Otherwise it is telling the committee something and it is telling its staff something completely different. I know from handling a very big risk involving 290 million passengers journeys a year where every single penny went, how much was spent on doctors, barristers, court fees, third party costs, on our own barristers and solicitors and on compensation. I assume an insurance company would have the same kind of system and if it is telling the committee it does not, then the law and economics model that indicates that handling this through the insurance industry is the most efficient way has broken down in Ireland and we have to look at something else.