Brian Lenihan Jnr (Dublin West, Fianna Fail)

Perhaps the Deputy might allow me to conclude on that issue. The history of this matter in common law was always that if someone was involved in an accident, the partner or spouse had a claim for the loss of consortium. However, that claim in common law never applied to someone whom the person who had suffered in the accident might subsequently marry. That is the key point. By not enacting the consortium provision, one is putting the State in a worse position than any other wrongdoer. No other wrongdoer must compensate on this basis an indeterminate class that may arise in future.

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