Pádraig Ó Céidigh (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I will not take ten minutes. It will be much shorter than that. I welcome the Minister and strongly congratulate her and the Government on bringing forward this legislation. It is very important. Its purpose is to encourage co-operation with the board. As the Minister says, it will make things a lot more streamlined and efficient. In some cases, its purpose is to disincentivise fraudsters and clean up the whole process. At the moment, there is a lot of entanglement and a need for clarity in respect of evidence and proofs of evidence. The legislation requires a claimant to bring a lot more solid evidence in front of the PIAB a lot earlier so the board can do its job as it is set out, with which it has been having difficulty. As a result, we should have reduced legal and insurance costs. All in all, the legislation should start giving small and medium-sized businesses in Ireland a little bit more of a fighting chance. That is very much to be welcomed. The Minister has a particular passion for SMEs, and I very much appreciate that. The fight has only begun in respect of small and medium-sized businesses. We really have to keep our focus on it.

I note that the Minister mentioned the law of tort. The PIAB uses the law of tort. That started with the law of equity back in the day and moved on to tort. In respect of tort, there are two or three pieces that defendants must show. They must show they have suffered as a result of a foreseeable loss and that the person against whom they are claiming had a duty of care and breached it. It is pretty straightforward and widely used, even though it is a common law action. There are many precedents in court in this respect. That is very important because we are working on precedent. The Minister is giving a structure to the PIAB to carry out its work effectively, which was being inhibited in the past.

I have one request. I introduced the Perjury and Related Offences Bill 2018 in the Seanad a number of months ago with the support of my Technical Group. It is due to be debated on Committee Stage this term. It will strongly support the present Bill. If I may say so, I also believe it will help Senator Davitt with some of the queries he has raised. It is going to clean out the system so that a defendant will have to be pretty confident that he or she has suffered loss and that there is a duty of care and that, as a result, he or she is entitled to a claim. Those who are entitled are right to claim but we have to clean it up. I would very much appreciate the support of the Minister and the Government for the perjury Bill. I believe both Bills go hand in hand.