John Whelan (Labour) | Oireachtas source

I move:

That Seanad Éireann: - commends the Government for the comprehensive and successful process of political reform upon which it is engaged;

- calls on the Government to consider engaging in further reform, in particular to consider a review of the role of the State Claims Agency;

- calls further on the Government to consider undertaking such a review, with a view to bringing to an end lengthy, arduous and costly litigation between citizens and State agencies, and to replacing an adversarial and confrontational legal culture with a more user-friendly, prompt, no-fault system of settlement and compensation.

I welcome my colleagues and particularly the Minister of State who is taking the motion. I thank the Government for accepting the motion without amendment and I gain some heart from that, that there may be an inkling of some movement on the Government side to actually look at this area. I thank Senator Landy for his support and interest in the matter. It is also great to see Senator Colm Burke here who has a direct professional knowledge and interest in this sphere.

I was contacted when this motion was tabled and asked what the motivation behind it was and what was going on. There is nothing going on but the motivation is quite simple and straightforward. I am always horrified, as I think most right-thinking people are, when I see the phrase "the State versus" on television or in the newspapers. I have always been of the view, perhaps naively, that the State should always have the interests of its citizens at heart. The State and its apparatus, functions and institutions should support and assist the citizen and intervene on citizens' behalf whenever they need it or when they are in distress or require support. This should be at the core of their value system and modus operandi.

Unfortunately that is not always the case. One would want to have a heart of stone some evenings while watching the 6 o'clock news. It is harrowing to watch and is all too frequent. This is something that Senator Bacik and I have discussed. On the day that we tabled this motion originally, yet another case unfolded on the front pages of our papers and on the 6 o'clock news in which yet another family were, in my opinion, unnecessarily dragged through the courts to seek justice. Very often this is after years of trying to achieve fair play on behalf of their family or children. We must bring this to an end. It is unnecessary as are the legal costs and the legal treadmill that we set in motion when the State takes an adversarial and obstructive position against the interests of the individual. This is clearly a David and Goliath struggle because most families do not want to be in court. They certainly do not want to end up in the High Court for years on end through no fault of their own to seek justice and a settlement and compensation on behalf of their children. Very often we add insult to injury by dragging the case out.

The State is not acting in my name or on my or our behalf when it does this so I do not know from where this culture and system emerged. We could perhaps easily point a finger at the legal fraternity. That would be unfair. We could point a finger, perhaps, at the insurance industry where the culture is to accept nothing, to own up to nothing, not to accept any fault, blame or liability and to let a case drag on. Very often the plaintiff is the small person in the equation, with little or no resources, taking on the giant, which is the apparatus of the State, which is deemed to have deep pockets. Those deep pockets are the pockets of the Irish taxpayer.