Seanad debates
Monday, 24 November 2003
Personal Injuries Assessment Board Bill 2003: Committee Stage.
If someone wants to have legal advice, he or she will be free to do so. Section 7 makes it clear that "Nothing in this Act is to be read as affecting the right of any person to seek legal advice.". If a claimant wishes copies of correspondence to be sent to his or her legal adviser, that will happen. However, we are not providing for a regime in which the PIAB will deal with lawyers and not with claimants. We are setting up this board in order to reduce the cost of delivering people's entitlements to them. Approximately 40% of the cost of personal injury claims comprises legal fees. In Ireland, barristers are involved in 70% of personal injury cases. The corresponding figure for the United Kingdom is 4%. In Ireland, it takes six times longer to get what one is entitled to than in the United Kingdom. The purpose of the PIAB is to reduce substantially the cost of delivering to a claimant what he is entitled to and to speed up the time in which that happens. The system will be paper-based, unlike the Employment Appeals Tribunal which involves a series of oral hearings. The two situations are completely different.
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