Seanad debates
Thursday, 20 November 2003
Personal Injuries Assessment Board Bill 2003: Second Stage.
This is part of the programme for Government which the Tánaiste is implementing and she has given enormous time and energy to it. No previous Government or Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment was in a position to tackle this problem the way the Tánaiste has done. I have served in that Department, although not with responsibility for insurance which was the bailiwick of the then Minister, former Deputy Desmond O'Malley. Insurance costs at that time were not as high. They have escalated in recent years due to the cost of claims. Everyone has argued about this particular issue. The return of the Government, the establishment of the Joint Committee on Enterprise and Small Business, chaired by Deputy Cassidy, and the work it put in over the summer, as well as the work of the Tánaiste and Dorothea Dowling and her committee, have all come together in the last 12 months in the formulation of this Bill. It is part of an overall package to try to bring down the cost of insurance.
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