Paul Murphy (Dublin South West, RISE) | Oireachtas source

I thank the witnesses. I will jump off from this issue of direct access to multiparty actions. The Consumer Association of Ireland stressed in its opening statement that it is not looking for this and that it does not want it and is not in favour of it. What is so bad about giving people direct access to taking cases together? It is often spun that there is a culture in the US of people taking vexatious claims. There is the classic case of the woman getting burned by the coffee in McDonald's. However McDonald's knew the coffee was dangerously hot and the woman suffered third degree burns. It was spun to make it look bad but in a country where things are balanced very much in favour of business against ordinary people the ability of US consumers to take class action suits rebalances them a little bit. What is the downside of direct access?