Charles Flanagan (Laois-Offaly, Fine Gael)
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572. To ask the Minister for Justice and Equality when he will introduce legislation facilitating a system of annual index linked periodic payment orders for the lifetime of a person suffering serious and lasting injury where negligence of another has been established. [8014/14]

Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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The position with regard to periodic payment orders is that the Government, at my request, approved the drafting of a General Scheme to implement the recommendations contained in the High Court Working Group Report on Periodic Payment Orders in catastrophic personal injuries cases with respect to awards made against the State and agreed that the extension of any such scheme to non-State defendants should be examined further in consultation with the Department of Finance.

My Department has prepared draft Heads of the Bill and is currently in discussions with the Department of Finance on the matter. I understand that the Department of Finance has, through the State Claims Agency, commissioned an actuarial study to examine the possibility of extending a periodic payment scheme to non-State defendants. It is expected that the report of the actuarial study will be available imminently. Once the report has been received, final discussions on the shape of the Bill will be concluded rapidly by my Department with a view to early consideration by Government of the General Scheme and finalisation of the resultant Bill, with a view to publication and enactment in 2014.