Mr. John Maher:

I thank the Deputy. I will group his questions as best I can. If I have not responded to any question, I ask him to prompt me. On mediation and how it can be done, we envisage it will be done quickly. Its purpose is to get two parties into a room, thrash out the issues and try to resolve them. It is envisaged that the process would not drag on for months and months. Head 8 also provides that the board may abandon an attempt to resolve an issue via mediation. If the board can see that there is deadlock or gridlock, it can decide that the process is not working and the claim will proceed to assessment.

On the cost element, as I said to Senator Crowe it is a much quicker process. Even if people have legal representation, the costs should not be piling up in the same way as they would if people went into the High Court.

On reductions in premiums, there is a very clear correlation between compensation costs for claims and the cost of premiums. We would assume that if they are dealt with through the PIAB process rather than going to litigation, they will be cheaper. There should be a knock-on effect. Similarly, the big game changer is personal injury guidelines. Now the awards people receive from PIAB should be exactly the same as they would get if they went to court because both are using the same guidelines. There should be no real differential between what people would expect to get through PIAB, a process which can be completed quickly, or what they can expect to get if they go all the way to the High Court. We think that will have a dramatic impact on costs, but it will take time to bed in.

On what it means when PIAB retains a case, it means the case will not receive an authorisation to proceed to litigation, therefore people will have to stay with the PIAB process. The point of this is that if medical evidence is not available to PIAB to assess a case, that same evidence will not be available to a court to assess the case. Therefore, it makes more sense to keep a case within the PIAB process for a period of time for the injury to settle and, therefore, the claim can be settled through PIAB. Again, it is about keeping cases out of the litigation process. On heads 15 and 16, they are currently discretionary provisions. We expect that where PIAB has the power to retain those cases, it will lead to an increase in such cases. Have I missed any questions? The Deputy asked many.