Results 47,001-47,020 of 51,089 for speaker:Micheál Martin

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: Costs have been recovered by claimants in cases where assessments are being rejected and subsequently accepted after the issue of proceedings. Fees of €1,000 to €1,500 are being allowed by county registrars throughout the country for PIAB work in addition to the full professional fee of the proceedings. We are aware, and PIAB has raised the issue with me, that this is becoming a...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: There are a number of cases. Is the Deputy suggesting we should wait for the thousands——

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy is missing the point. The case does not have to go to court.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: That is the point I am making. The loophole is there to be exploited before the case gets to court. We are cutting off this loophole in the interests of the people of no property or no means. This is to protect the people of no property or no means to whom Deputy Lynch alluded. It is why we are moving with urgency. I respectfully suggest that if I introduced the Bill next year and the...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I would be attacked from all sides of the House if I had not moved on this issue. That is how politics works. I am satisfied this is a reasonable position to adopt. It is important we protect the edifice of the PIAB. It has been good for people. The practice that has emerged has the potential to undermine its work and impact on it significantly.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I clarified that I accepted the Deputy's bona fides.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I accept from Deputy Penrose's contribution that he does not have issues with the PIAB. I welcome his comments and, as I said in my response on Second Stage, I accept his bona fides. I do not see him as approaching the subject with a vested interest at all. I understand and value the point he made but the question of the exception becoming the rule is the problem we face as we attempt to...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: It is not in exceptional cases. It is a loophole we must close off.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: As it stands, a person can reject the award from the PIAB, issue proceedings and be awarded costs.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: It would have happened in a number of cases to which I referred.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: The number is not an issue. Does Deputy Lynch suggest I wait for another six months so that there are a couple of thousand cases costing €1,800? Should I wait 12 months for a couple of million euro to be lost needlessly?

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: We took part in a debate yesterday on competitiveness and on doing things efficiently in modern Ireland. The PIAB is all about that. I am getting mixed messages from the Fine Gael benches. Some say they welcome the Bill, while others, such as Deputy Charles Flanagan, say that it is pitted against the claimant.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: He asked if it was biased against the claimant but that is nonsense.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Committee and Remaining Stages (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: It is not. It seeks to provide a very good service. The old litigation service, as Deputy Charles Flanagan should know, being in the legal profession, was appalling. It was an adversarial system that lasted, in some cases, for three years which is an appalling situation for people with personal injuries. The PIAB is an effective instrument for which the Oireachtas, on all sides of both...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I thank Deputies for their contributions, in particular newly elected Deputies such as Deputies Creighton, Michael McGrath and Kennedy, whom I congratulate on their election. I wish to make several general points before addressing the specific issues raised by Deputies. I am somewhat taken aback by the strong anti-PIAB sentiment expressed by the Opposition and in particular by Fine Gael...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: Of course the Government does not have that agenda. Our agenda is completely the opposite because we want to protect the common good, the ordinary citizen and, ultimately, the taxpayer, as well as make our economy and society more competitive, effective and efficient. That is what we are trying to achieve. I find the Fine Gael position quite extraordinary. It is clear we are in a...

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I genuinely mean that and——

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I am struck by the fact that Deputy Hogan was on the Oireachtas committee that recommended the legislation I am implementing. The committee unanimously recommended this legislation to the Government, the same committee of which Deputy Hogan was a member.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: The Deputy obviously supported it then but now he has come into the House and done a spectacular U-turn, attacked the PIAB and opposed the legislation. That is, in essence, what has happened here.

Personal Injuries Assessment Board (Amendment) Bill 2007 [Seanad]: Second Stage (5 Jul 2007)

Micheál Martin: I have pointed out this fact on a number of occasions in this House and in the Seanad. There has always been strong lobbying against the Personal Injuries Assessment Board by the legal profession — let us be very clear about that, and I understand it. I have no axe to grind with the legal profession but its opposition to the PIAB has been relentless and will continue to be so. The legal...