Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Labour)
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Question 19: To ask the Minister for Enterprise, Trade and Employment the number of cases currently before the Personal Injuries Assessment Board; the number of cases for which rulings have been given since its inception; the number of these cases that have been referred to the Courts for further action or appeal; the number of staff currently employed by the PIAB; the intended total number of staff to be employed by the PIAB; the date by which he expects the PIAB to be fully staffed; the date on which a review will be undertaken on staffing levels in the PIAB; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [15470/07]

Micheál Martin (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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At the end of March 2007 there were 6,307 cases with the PIAB in the 90-day "consent to process" period i.e. PIAB has received a claim and has issued formal notice to the responding party and is awaiting consent to process from that party. There were a further 5,238 cases in the nine-month statutory assessment process, where the responding party has indicated that liability is not contested and damages are being assessed. It should be noted that arising from a deadline of 30th March 2007 imposed by the reduction from 3 to 2 years in the statute of limitation in personal injury cases, volumes of claims in PIAB in the 90-day "consent to process" period have increased significantly. The PIAB has indicated that it has sufficient resources in place to deal with the increase.

Approximately 9,300 assessments have been made to date, 6,500 of these having been issued by the end of 2006. Of the assessments issued 4,976 have been accepted, 3,011 have been rejected and authorised to proceed to litigation, and responses are awaited on the balance.

Some of the rejected assessments will have been resolved since PIAB involvement and others will proceed to the Courts. The PIAB would not be aware of the number of these cases which actually proceed to litigation, although it is believed that a significant proportion are settled outside of the Courts once an authorisation issues from the PIAB.

The Board currently employs 76 staff members (up from 53 in May 2006) and is in the process of recruiting to bring numbers towards the staffing level of 85 agreed with my Department. There are no plans at this time to further review staffing levels in the PIAB.