Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I accept that. Every member of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board would agree with the points made by Senator Coghlan and that the time limit should be six months. However, Senator Leyden's point is relevant. It would be possible to process the cases in six months if there were sufficient staff and everything else was in order. A person can have an accident today and make a claim within a couple of weeks. If it is a straightforward injury that heals, that is fine. I fractured my wrist in August last and have not yet finished with physiotherapy. That was a simple injury. The problem is that in the event of a more substantial injury where a person has to go to rehabilitation and have all types of physiotherapy, the medical profession would not be in a position to make an assessment within the period allowed. It would be a fair objective to try to get the majority of claims dealt with within six months. It is my understanding, and certainly the chairperson of the PIAB, Dorothea Dowling, has indicated time and again that it would be the intention to get claims through in that period. She made a strong case to have claims dealt with in a short period for the reason which Senator Maurice Hayes mentioned, namely that people could be allowed to drag on matters.

As I said on Second Stage, we have a list of every claim that has come before the courts in the past four to six years showing the date of the accident, date of initiation of legal action and the date of conclusion, which in some cases runs to six years. The objective is to reduce the period for conclusion of cases but this is impractical. Some medical personnel are prepared to give a complete medical report, an assessment and conclusion and in those cases it should certainly be done within six months. I reassure Senator Coghlan that none of those I know who are involved in the PIAB is happy that it should be beyond six months but the irrefutable evidence before us suggests it will not be possible to get medical assessments for many injuries within that period. One can wait six months before lodging a complaint. If one waits for the limit each time before lodging a claim there are ways in which it can be spread out. It is not possible to have all the information necessary to conclude an assessment and sort a claim within six months. That is impractical. There is no objection, in principle, to the points made by Senator Coghlan; it is just impossible to make it work.