Jim Daly (Cork South West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister of State for his response, although my fears are not allayed much further. We can all have a hands-off approach and I believe we are overly exercising the hands-off approach because of the separation between the Judiciary and the Legislature, of which I am well aware. As a House, we have an obligation in this regard. I am not suggesting for a second that anybody in the House gets involved in apportioning blame and deciding who is responsible for what - that is the job of the Judiciary. However, the law of the land is set by this House and, therefore, there is an onus on us, the Members of this House. I ask the Minister to review her approach, which is not to bring in legislation regarding the rebalancing of liability. It is an issue we should debate in the House. I believe legislation is necessary and that it would be of assistance to the courts, given we have become a bit trigger-happy, as I said earlier, in regard to the amounts of money that are being awarded. There is a lot of what many ordinary people on the street would call nonsense happening in the courts, with people making a lot of money out of a little misfortune. There is an on onus on the House in this regard.

In that vein, I respectfully ask that the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, would go back to the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, to get the answer to three questions. First, can the sum of awards made in the Irish courts for each of the past five years be provided to me by the Courts Service, if it is possible to get that information, to see whether there is an increasing trend? Second, what reviews or benchmarking exercises are being undertaken by the Department to compare and contrast the awards in this jurisdiction with other jurisdictions? Third, will the Minister of State, Deputy Stanton, tell the Minister, Deputy Fitzgerald, that I earnestly ask that she review her decision not to introduce legislation, and that she would consider the introduction of legislation to rebalance liability in the case of personal injury?

See this speech in context