Joe O'Toole (Independent)

I refer to the story in The Irish Times today on legal fees. I declare an interest in that I am vice chairman of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board. The Leader has been involved in this issue since 2002 when he chaired an inquiry into the insurance industry. I have been involved in the issue for many years and the idea is to keep the cost of claims reasonable. We have been fought every step of the way by the legal profession, as it is entitled to do. We seek to deal directly with people who make a claim. If a person is injured at work and makes a claim, we want them to receive all the correspondence. However, the legal profession fought against us with the support of the Law Society and took us all the way to the Supreme Court. We were told we could not deal with a client directly but that we could copy to him or her information on our dealings with the solicitor. That helped to ease the problem.

We should take an interest in this issue because the legal profession is central to the democratic structure. I hold the profession in the highest regard and its input is of great importance in a free society. However, its members also have responsibilities to the citizenry. In this case they submitted a bill of €2.1 million in legal fees and the matter was appealed to the Taxing Master who hears appeals. He stated: "I have never encountered such grossly excessive fees being marked by learned counsel or solicitors." He was outraged and expressed his bewilderment and disgust, words we do not normally see included in decisions handed down in court. People must be aware that Personal Injuries Assessment Board is working hard to reduce costs for clients and should be doing so with the total support of the legal profession which has a major role to play in that regard. If we are being fought every step of the way, with constant judicial reviews of the work of boards and constant attacks, I would like to receive the support of the House to make whatever changes are necessary to legislation governing the board to achieve what was intended by the legislation passed by the Oireachtas. I also ask for the support of the legal profession in so doing. It is appalling, a bill of €2.1 million in legal fees was reduced to €400,000.