Feargal Quinn (Independent) | Oireachtas source

Will the Leader find time to debate the report on Injuries Board.ie published yesterday? This House played a very large part in the creation of the personal injuries legislation ten years ago. The figures published yesterday were very interesting and showed that since 2004, there has been a savings of ¤500 million for citizens. We should be very proud of the role we played in this legislation. I remember former Senator Joe O?Toole was very active in this regard. The reason I mention it is that it is almost ten years since it came into being. The world has changed since then and we need to have another look at it. A debate at this stage would be the correct way to go.

Let me give one example of what the chief executive said yesterday. She said one of the problems it has is the number of ambulance chasers. Another interesting term used was "claims harvesting". This is where people try to find out online where there was an accident in order to encourage people to take cases. The number of claims has not increased but the amounts of the claims has. It is time we looked at this again. It would be very worthwhile to have a debate on Injuries Board.ie to see if we could do something else.

In regard to Senator Barrett?s call and the question of having a pre-budget debate, as promised, the earlier we have that, the better. It does not seem to make sense to wait until the last minute and not to get a chance to have a say on what should go into that budget. In regard to property valuation, whether one is buying or selling a house, an increase in property values is either good news or bad news. Clearly, it is something we should debate and I hope the Leader will be able to find time for one at an early stage so we can include the property tax in it.