Derek McDowell (Labour)

I move amendment No. 1:

In page 7, line 31, after "actions" to insert "other than an action involving a claim for damages arising from a breach of the Constitution or the European Convention on Human Rights Act 2003, or a claim for aggravated or exemplary damages".

Section 3 deals with the claims that will be allowed to go before the board and these amendments deal with some of my concerns. The number of claims before the board is huge, with an estimated 12,000 employer liability claims arising in a year. If the assessment board is staffed by 100 people, they will have to deal with a huge number of claims under that heading alone. If it is extended, as is intended, to motor insurance claims, there will be a greatly increased volume. To provide a catch-all in the Bill could be lazy or could catch every tort that might come down the road. If we intend to provide for certain types of claims, we should do that and not say the board can do whatever it wants and deal with any other civil action that may arise.

In the amendment we specifically refer to the limited number of claims dealing with breaches of constitutional rights and cases that might arise under the European Convention on Human Rights Act where aggravated damages might be appropriate and the courts, if they were hearing the case, would decide that the circumstances of a particular claim were so egregious that such damages be awarded. This would happen where a claimant has been messed about by a respondent or where the circumstances of the case were outrageous and involved civil servants or the Garda Síochána. There have been cases in recent times involving allegations of breaches of constitutional rights as a result of wrongful imprisonment or incidents in the street. Were those incidents to come before the courts and the courts found in favour of the claimants, they would award aggravated damages. The Tánaiste did not intend that such cases would be dealt with by the assessment board and we should be clear about that in the Bill.