Seanad debates

Monday, 24 November 2003

Personal Injuries Assessment Board Bill 2003: Committee Stage.

 

Section 17 deals with those circumstances where the board has discretion not to deal with a particular type of case and sets out four or five such circumstances. This amendment, in my name and that of the Labour Party Senators, removes discretion from the board. It is self-evident that the board should not deal with cases of the kind set out in this section. Our amendment proposes that the words "be required to" be deleted. That, in effect, would make it mandatory for the board to decline to deal with cases where, for example, the issues are particularly complex, there is an insufficient body of case law available to provide guidance or the book of quantum is inadequate to deal with them. Rather than giving the board discretion to decline cases, we suggest the Bill should require it to decline to deal with cases of the kind set out in the section.

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