Mr. John Maher:

The function of the mediation, and even the PIAB process as it stands today, is to deal with claims in a non-adversarial manner. It is not a court. That is the first point.

The second important point is that you do not need legal representation per seto use PIAB. That is the choice of the claimant. In respect of legal costs, even if a claimant did use legal representation in mediation, mediation is so much quicker than litigation, so even if it were there it would be less. What we are trying to do is bring those cases that drag on into litigation and so forth into the PIAB process where they can be resolved in a speedy manner.

Mediation plus assessment will do that.

On the point on what happens when mediation breaks down, if mediation breaks down and the respondent agrees to go to an assessment that is what happens. People cannot just use mediation as a means of getting out of an assessment. That is another important point. The WRC, the RTB and the FSPO show this model works and is successful. In the RTB, about 30% of claims are resolved through mediation and in the FSPO the figure is about 20%. It is a viable means of reducing costs and having a speedy resolution.