Alex White (Dublin South, Labour) | Oireachtas source

I will certainly bring the points the Deputy raised to the Minister for Finance, Deputy Noonan. Deputy McGrath referred, correctly, to the constraints that exist from a legal point of view in regard to the bringing of claims in general, not only in this area. The statute of limitations confines the bringing of claims to particular limitation periods, as the Deputy will know. Presumably an amendment would be required for change in this area. In general, time limits on litigation make sense because they ensure that potential litigants or defendants can have some level of certainty as to their exposure. That is a general proposition. When awful cases such as these arise, however, they point us in the direction of the constraints that exist in law and it may well be that a case could be made. The Law Reform Commission has looked at this issue on a number of occasions and we also have the principle of discoverability in regard to the bringing of claims in personal injury actions, where the law has been changed to allow for it. Therefore, there may be a case. The Deputy is fully aware of this issue, as is the Minister. However, I will relate the comments of the Deputy to the Minister. This is an extremely difficult and terrible situation, faced by very many people.

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