Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I regret the fact that the Minister has kicked it down the line. It is not that I do not have full confidence in Mr. Justice Quirke to deal with this matter. In fact, of all those involved in the Judiciary, he is the one I would be delighted to see deal with it because he has dealt with such cases. Much of the argumentation I have made to the Minister today comes from his comments from the bench.

The point made by Senator Alex White is an important one and I should have dealt with it when presenting the recommendation. What I am proposing could only take place where both the defendant and the plaintiff agreed to structured payments. I am not suggesting structured payments should become the norm. All I propose is that they become an option.

With regard to asking somebody to examine this issue, I draw the Minister's attention to the report of the Law Reform Commission, LRC 54 of 1996. At the time the commission consisted of the former judge of the Supreme Court, Mr. Justice Anthony Hederman; Mr. Justice Buckley of the Circuit Court; Professor Duncan, barrister at law and professor of law and jurisprudence at the University of Dublin; and a few others such as Ms Maureen Gaffney. In fact, the secretary to the commission was a Mr. John Quirke, although I do not think it is the same person to whom the Minister referred.

As the Law Reform Commission went through this issue in detail, there is nothing new in what I am proposing. The report states the structured settlement scheme should be made available and that it should be permissible to operate it with certain conditions such as the ones correctly referred to by Senator Alex White. Section 16.65 of the report states:

It follows that the only way the tax system might encourage the use of structured settlements would be "to use the carrot rather than the stick". An attractive option would be to extend the availability of tax relief ... We recommend that tax relief be so extended.

Therefore, the commission's report dealt with every aspect of the issue and recommended the extension of the tax relief to the Government at the time.

I should have noted that I am vice chairman of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. Although the board does not deal with this type of case, I am aware of issues on the edge. However, there is nothing new about this. The Law Reform Commission report is available and Mr. Justice Quirke has no problem with it. While I do not want to put words in his mouth, it would be his view that the Government should move ahead along the lines I have suggested.

While I do not want to raise a particular case, there is a brain damage case before the courts in which the defendant has agreed to pay on an annual basis to look after a person. In that case the judge is caught. Everyone is in agreement that this should be done, including the judge, but he cannot make the award as he would wish to and the only course is for him to award a lump sum. To deal again with Senator Alex White's issue, this is a case in which everyone agrees this is the way to do it but the court and the judge are hamstrung.

The Minister should consider the position on this point. Why do we need a further examination if there is a full Law Reform Commission report in front of the Minister?