Richard Bruton (Dublin Bay North, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I wish to take this opportunity to congratulate Mr. Maher and his staff on bringing forward the Bill. It is important that PIAB becomes more mainstream. As was outlined, cases are settled in half the time and at one-twentieth of the legal costs of other routes.

I read reports in yesterday's newspapers that the number of cases being accepted in the PIAB process fell recently from over 50% to 37%. That is a considerable fall. It is reported to reflect the new quantums. It would seem that people are testing the system and moving away from PIAB in the short term. Can anything be done to arrest that, even in terms of information and trying to promote a better knowledge of what is happening?

I note that larger cases seem to leave PIAB. In terms of the total costs, 80% of the costs awarded happen through litigation rather than the PIAB route.

What is behind this? Does it reflect some deviation from the quantum by the courts, so that people feel the gamble of going the court route is justified? In regard to the system whereby when an award is no greater than in the courts, the person pays the costs. Does that only apply if the case goes to full litigation? Most of these cases seem to be settled on the steps of the court. Do people have a free bet? They can go to the steps of the court and if they are not doing well, they just settle and this section does not get tripped. Does the Department track what PIAB would have awarded versus what the court settlement was? Do we have that information? Is it possible during mediation to deviate from the quantum? Could mediation become a way of undermining the quantum? Considerable effort has gone into creating some sort of standardisation.