Ms Mary Farrell:

We are very far behind the United Kingdom in this. It has been known for a long time that the figures being used in awards were not correct, that they were estimating an interest rate which would provide income into the future so that it would not be necessary to touch the fund itself. That all changed, as the income from deposit accounts and so on did not provide the amounts that were needed, which is why this investment system was established. The proposals in place now are going through for the periodic payments, or stage payments; they will come on stream but this will be no use to us because we are already in the system and we cannot go back into court and say that our case was undervalued and we want more. In the UK, if someone had a brain injury, for instance, and developed a further condition related to that later on, such as epilepsy, he or she would be able to return to court. We are very far behind in this whole area, and as members will be aware, we have not yet set up the decisions support service nor is the periodic payments set up. Ireland is way behind on everything. We are stuck here in the old system with the new system coming in; newer people coming into the system will have advantages that this group will not have. We must somehow level the playing field for these people.