Mary Harney (Dublin Mid West, Progressive Democrats)

This is only part of the jigsaw to solve insurance problems; it is not the full picture. The Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform will introduce the Civil Liability and Courts Bill which will include a requirement on claimants to set out the basis for their case. The purpose of establishing the PIAB is to provide a consumer friendly mechanism for delivering compensation. This is not an anti-consumer organisation; it will be a consumer friendly organisation which will help claimants and be involved with them. We want to create a culture where the first port of call for a person who has received a personal injury will be the PIAB, not the courts. I envisage the PIAB as the place where 95% of personal injury claims will be resolved. I hope its credibility will be such that few people will feel the necessity to take the court route. Its credibility, success and future depends on establishing itself as a consumer friendly organisation, which I do not have any doubt it will be, driven by a dynamic board. I am conscious that there are people in the environs of the House in the Law Society of Ireland and the PIAB.

We have developed a system and a culture in relation to insurance which is unsustainable. That is the only reason we are going down this road. I remember when former Deputy Des O'Malley was Minister for Industry and Commerce, people discussed the notion of putting something similar in place. However, for one reason or another, it did not happen. If we had not arrived at this crisis, we would probably not be doing it now either. I do not want people to think that this is about taking from genuine claimants and those who merit appropriate levels of compensation. This is about helping them. If most normal people, particularly those I know, were given a choice, they would not go down an adversarial court route. They would prefer this type of mechanism to give them that to which they are entitled. When we put together informal non-adversarial ways of settling disputes between parties, whether through the Labour Court or the LRC, they work extremely well. This will also work well.