Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Minister. Small businesses, community groups in her own constituency and, right across the State, voluntary organisations are priced out of the market because of the crisis that is in insurance reform. Unfortunately, reform is happening at a snail's pace. This key legislative change is being supported across the House. We have been calling for this for years. The campaigners have been calling for it for years. Finally when the Government agrees to do it, it misses its own deadline by a year.

We now have proposals before us. The first is to amend the Occupiers' Liability Act to take account of recent case law that rebalances responsibility between the occupier and the visitor, including taking into account the probability of an accident occurring, not just its occurrence, and the probable severity of an injury resulting from that occurrence. Another is to amend the Act by replace reference to reasonable grounds or reasonable action with whether an occupier acted with reckless disregard to the person or property. Can the Minister clarify the class of persons to whom this will apply in respect of reckless disregard? Are we talking about visitors, customers or trespassers? What classes of persons will all of this apply to?

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