Terry Leyden (Fianna Fail)

Yes, but there should not be an exclusion clause. Under the Constitution, I question this Bill because I do not think one can exclude a person from their profession. The Minister of State should discuss the matter with his officials and the Attorney General. This raises an important issue, that the right to earn one's living here is guarded in the Constitution. Why should a professional solicitor – acting for a family on every other issue, whether land registry, transfers or making a will – be excluded by this legislation from acting on behalf of a person who has suffered an injury? I do not see the logic of this. When I was a Minister of State, I accepted many Opposition amendments. When former Senator Kennedy – an excellent lawyer – was a Member, he tabled excellent amendments and I was delighted to accept them.

Irrespective of what Senator O'Toole or the members of the board might say, there is no reason why the family lawyer should be excluded from acting on one's behalf in making one's case, filling out the forms and dealing with communications from the board, particularly when no such exclusion applies to the insurance companies. All the insurance companies' claims will be dealt with by a solicitor or, more than likely, a barrister and not by a secretary or anybody else, yet the victim making the case is being excluded by the Bill from engaging his own family lawyer to deal with the issue.