Mr. Brian Hanley:

Let me refer to what is needed now. We are potentially looking at personal injury awards being increased or reviewed again in another two years. What is in the action plan, what we have called for and indeed what Insurance Ireland and others have called for is the undertaking of benchmarking exercises before any changes are made to the awards. It is in the action plan as something that needs to be considered. We certainly want it to be introduced. On the whole idea of the increase, there is a lot of scope to improve how personal injury awards are determined. An example is having the Injuries Resolution Board part of the benchmarking exercises, because it processes a huge volume of cases annually. There should be more democratic oversight by this committee. Any recommendations from the Judicial Council as to any increases should also be looked at. There is a lot that could be done to make sure awards are fair going forward. We have been the outlier and the issue has been one of the biggest problems.