Colm Burke (Fine Gael)

I welcome the Minister of State to the House and I apologise for keeping him in the House for so long this evening. My Adjournment matter concerns the issuance of lump sum awards and the payment of awards by instalment. This matter arises in relation to the Quirke report which arose from an expert group that was set up in 2010 to give advice on this matter. This question arose recently in the High Court when an award of €11 million was made and the judge asked whether the payment of awards by instalment would be more appropriate. However, there is no such procedure in place at this stage.

As the Minister of State knows, the way awards are made out is based on: pain and suffering to date - that is, from the date of the accident to the trial date; pain and suffering into the future; loss of earnings to date, namely, to the date of the trial; and loss of earnings into the future.

The big issues concerning loss of earnings into the future, especially in a severe case, is that it is not always possible to determine what period of time will be involved. The Quirke report stated that the present method of awarding damages for future pecuniary loss - in this jurisdiction, the single lump sum award - is inadequate and inappropriate in cases where a plaintiff has sustained major injuries, and there are major, long-term consequences that will require ongoing care. The report said the expert group believed that a seriously injured plaintiff should not be deprived of a right to claim within the courts that damages which are intended to pay for the cost of his or her future care and future treatment, and medical and assistive aids and appliances, should be paid periodically and not by way of a single lump sum.

The group also believes that defendants facing such substantial claims should be entitled to claim within the courts that damages which are intended to pay for the cost of future care, treatment and medical equipment, should in the interests of justice be paid periodically at the appropriate time when the care, treatment and equipment are required. The reason this is raised in relation to defendants as well, concerns the payment from a lump sum. If the recipient dies within a short period, the lump sum passes to the next of kin. In that context there is an advantage, for both a plaintiff and a defendant, to have periodic payments as opposed to one lump sum. Given the report's advice, is it proposed to bring forward the necessary legislation and, if so, what is the timescale involved?