Mr. Peter Boland:

What we are referring to is the need for the Government to protect the new judicial guidelines. Just because the guidelines are in place does not mean that they will be in place forever. PIAB has been very strong in terms of passing on the benefits of the new guidelines and its average assessment on general damages is down by 47% currently. However, a number of challenges remain. The first is that it will ultimately depend on the view of the courts as to whether these new judicial guidelines stand or not. As a result, it is incumbent on the Department of Justice, in as much as it can, to get cases into the High Court as quickly as possible in order that we can get some certainty. In the meantime, a series of challenges to the judicial guidelines - constitutional and otherwise - are being put by individual plaintiffs and their legal representatives. We are very concerned about those challenges because significant resources from certain sections of the legal profession are being thrown at the judicial guidelines. We do not want them derailed because they are one of the most significant reforms to have happened in respect of the cost of insurance area for many years.