Mr. John Farrell:

Unfortunately, it is a common occurrence in court, as is widely reported. People submit fraudulent claims that did not happen in the manner they are presented. In some cases they are staged. Even when these people are thrown out of court, there is no effective follow-up or prosecutions. There needs to be a deterrent. Our awards are worth 4.4 times the value of similar claims in the UK, which is a huge magnet. Some people come into this country with no other purpose than to perpetrate crime by committing fraud. We are currently defending ourselves from a fraudulent claim by a gentleman from England. When he came to Ireland to attend a medical examination for the claim, he caused another single car accident that same day. This is a very real problem that we have to address. It will ultimately be addressed by bringing down the high cost of awards. If we reduce the figure from 4.4 to one, many of these problems will go away. Our customers cannot understand why the Minister has not signed the Judicial Council Act into effect.

Why are we waiting one more day? We call on him to sign it today.