James Lawless (Kildare North, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I did suspect the Zalewski decision might be helpful. I noticed that the Minister of State said it may give rise to a challenge. Everything may give rise to a challenge, because that is the law. I again encourage the Minister of State to pursue this approach and to consider it. There is of course a constitutional right to appeal. A constitutional right of access to the courts is imperative and that is what an appeal body is for. Decisions of the WRC can be appealed to the Labour Court and those of the RTB can be appealed to the High Court on a point of law. I think the Minister of State's own plans in this regard also included provision for an appeal on a point of law. Therefore, I do not see a constitutional right of access to the courts being denied in any way in this regard. I reiterate my comments in this regard. It is certainly worth exploring this kind of approach.

On the flip side of this argument, I will add a note of caution and I spoke about this here before. Not every applicant to PIAB and not every plaintiff in a personal injury matter is a chancer or someone out to try their luck or to try to score some money from a defendant. Most of these claims are grounded upon legislation governing employment, workers rights, health and safety and the environment. We do not want to return to the dark ages of the industrial revolution when children were working in factories until they died prematurely because the conditions were so abhorrent. Most of these claims are grounded on laws we have passed in this House and in the European Parliament. This has been progressive legislation. Therefore, I appeal to the Minister of State not to throw the baby out with the bathwater.

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