Eoghan Murphy (Dublin Bay South, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

Chairman, that is an interesting point. I can understand how, having heard from PIAB that the establishment of the board never really removed the solicitors who were in the background - but of course they could not be awarded costs, apart from particular instances - that in the short term it might lead to a greater acceptance of the awards granted at the PIAB level. However, there is a risk that it would be incredibly inflationary in the short term. It could cost as much as €24 million in a year, given the number of cases that go through PIAB, if one were to award solicitors' fees at the time as well, without a guarantee that the awards would be accepted. One could see an inflationary cost on the insurance companies and therefore on the consumer, without necessarily getting the other end of the tail, which would be the acceptance of the awards. There is a risk in that.

If we achieve what the Chairman wants with the book of quantum and the acceptance by the Judiciary of those figures, that will cease to be a problem in terms of there being a negative incentive for a solicitor to advise a client against accepting the PIAB award and to let the case go to court because they will not get a figure that is much different. All they will have to do is get their costs paid. I hope that work at the tail end will reduce the incentive that the Chairman is trying to get immediately upfront. My worry is that, this approach, while there is logic to it, could be very inflationary in the short term.