Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

We may need to revisit this matter on Report Stage. I have not tabled an amendment but I would like to get some clarity. While our concerns do not apply to the current Minister, a future Minister may not be as supportive of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board as the current Minister. Similarly, a future Minister for Public Expenditure and Reform may not be supportive of PIAB. From my reading of the legislation it will be a matter for the Minister, in discussions with the Minister for Business, Enterprise and Innovation, to decide what are appropriate funds for the running of PIAB, both to meet operational and capital costs. I am aware that the Comptroller and Auditor General has made a report. We certainly do not want to have millions of euro in public funds not being used in a fitting manner and there should be remittance to the Exchequer.

Who evaluates the cost of running PIAB and ensuring it can operate in a manner we hope it will operate? I make this point in view of the fact that in the event of a downturn, public expenditure could be cut without any real evaluation being done of the impact such a cut would have on the capital investment PIAB requires to operate over a period of time. Should we accept that there may be a role for some form of independent evaluation of the funding required annually for the purposes of running PIAB, both in current and capital costs? Beyond this, there would then be a remittance to the Exchequer?

The summary account of a report by the Office for the Director of Corporate Enforcement discussed in the Dáil today is a case in point. We all know that the reason the office did not function was that it was starved of resources. We need to have some independent evaluation as to what is required to run an entity. Assuming always that the Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform is the person responsible for public funds, it would be reasonable to provide for an independent evaluation to be carried out to determine how much funding PIAB would need to operate and the funding threshold below which the board would be unable to guarantee a service.

We may revisit this section on Report Stage to ascertain whether we can provide for an independent assessment that would determine how much funding would be needed to ensure PIAB can function, both in terms of current expenditure and capital investment requirements.