Ms Moyagh Murdock:

We stand over the commitment that was given. Insurers are still committed to passing on the savings. Indeed, they have been passing on the savings since the inception of the new guidelines. What we are concerned about is the length of time it is taking for these cases to come through. While the award levels have been reduced, as Senator Crowe correctly said, the acceptance levels have dropped significantly and we are down now from 50% to 37%. Insurers have built in the benefit of those perceived savings in the current rates of insurance. What we want to see is the other elements of the reform agenda come in to help that. I will not go into the exact details but I have been given information and am concerned about three cases in particular that have come through the new guidelines at Circuit Court level, where the offers that PIAB made were rejected. One was in the south west of Ireland, where PIAB had made an offer of approximately €14,000 between general compensation and special costs