Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the fact that we are on Report Stage of this important legislation. As was indicated earlier, it is essential that we get periodic payment orders on the Statute Book to assist individuals who have suffered the most serious injuries. As Deputy Clare Daly mentioned, a number of weeks ago we had representatives of wards of court in before the justice committee. Many of them were family members of persons who had received awards many years ago. One of the difficulties was that the courts that made the awards all those years ago were not able to calculate accurately the amount of money required in order to maintain the wards under care for a sufficient period. It was instructive that many of the individuals were of an older age. Their loved ones had received awards some 20 or more years ago. The whole purpose of this legislation is to protect people in that position and to ensure that they will not be left in a position where awards have to be made by a court on day one and then, 20 years later, it is seen that the award was not sufficient.

In respect of amendment No. 1, I agree with the Minister of State that three years is too short a period. It is necessary for there to be a period of five years in order to assess the extent to which the awards made by the courts are sufficient and the impact of the harmonised index of consumer prices. It is going to take some time to consider it. The Minister of State has indicated that there are about 40 cases involving catastrophic injuries. I think we need to build up a body of cases before decisions are made.

In respect of amendment No. 2, before the Minister of State had spoken, I thought it appropriate to support the amendment. It seems illogical that the Minister would recognise that there needs to be a new index introduced, and that there was another index that was more suitable, yet that the Minister would have discretion as to whether to introduce it. It is also noteworthy that this requires the consent of the Minister for Finance. We will be supporting amendment No. 2.

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