Mr. John Newham:

I thank the Deputy. I will try to answer some of those questions and then defer to my colleague Mr. Maher. Over the past few years, the statistics have changed radically because of Covid-19, which has had an impact on accidents and so forth due to lower economic and social activity. However, in regard to what the Deputy is referring to, there is a chilling effect at the moment with regard to the legal challenges that have been brought in respect of the personal injuries guidelines. When those legal challenges are resolved that will bring clarity in terms of the veracity of the system. As a result, depending on what the judgments are, we would expect that to have an impact.

On the point Deputy Bruton makes about large cases, on which I will defer to Mr. Maher shortly, the personal injury guidelines acknowledge that particularly severe cases require a different approach. Often with larger cases, the issue of liability is paramount. That requires a judgment and the courts are the best place to adjudicate in such matters.

In regard to the question on full litigation and whether that will have an impact on matters being resolved on the steps of the court, I think it will have an impact in terms of the respondent being better enabled to predict what the outcome of a judgment would be in the court because the legislation is clear in that respect. It would, therefore, have some impact but it is more to do with the positions of the parties and the arguments that they engage with on the steps of the court.

In regard to the statistics between court settlement and those of PIAB, we have statistics but it depends on the court, the level of the court and the availability of statistics concerning court judgments. Obviously, where the District Court makes a judgment, the statistics are less available to us. My colleague Mr. Maher might also comment on that.

The final question was on mediation. Would the Deputy mind repeating it?