Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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282. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the specific outcomes that were achieved from the engagement between the Personal Injuries Commission and medical stakeholders with regard to recommendation No. 14 of the report on the cost of motor insurance; the specific date she expects the final report to be published by the Personal Injuries Commission; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [22348/18]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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The Personal Injuries Commission (PIC) was established in January 2017 by the then Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, with former President of the High Court, Mr Justice Nicholas Kearns appointed as chair.

Since its establishment, the Personal Injuries Commission has been actively engaged in delivering in accordance with the terms of reference of its work. A considerable amount of research into approaches in other jurisdictions has been carried out along with a consultation exercise with the medical community and key stakeholder groups. The responses received to this consultation are available on the Department’s website at www.dbei.gov.ie. The First Report of the PIC sets out the detail of the consultation.

This research and consultation has informed the key findings of the Commission’s First Report which suggest that adopting a standardised and internationally recognised approach to the diagnosis, treatment and reporting of soft tissue injuries will improve the personal injuries environment in Ireland.

The PIC produced its first Report which was approved by Government and published on 7 December 2017. The Report recommends that the Quebec Task Force (QTF) Whiplash Associated Disorder (WAD) grading scale should be used going forward by all medical professionals reporting on relevant injuries. These are internationally recognised scales based on severity of symptoms and associated physical signs.  A standardised medical reporting template is included in the Report.

The Report recommends that training and accreditation of medical professionals who complete personal injury medical reports should be promoted.

The Report also recommends the linking of future publications of the Book of Quantum to the newly standardised examination and reporting injury categories.

Finally, the Report recommends that relevant injury data should be collated and published by appropriate bodies.  The Commission also suggests that there may be merit that data available from insurers relating to the incidence of ‘whiplash’ soft-tissue injuries, forms part of the National Claims Information Database which is being developed by the Central Bank of Ireland.

The next Report of the Personal Injuries Commission will predominately deal with benchmarking of Irish awards with international awards.  Independent consultants have been engaged to carry out the data validation/verification of the data received and work with the Personal Injuries Commission on the benchmarking exercise. This Report is expected in June/July 2018 subject to the completion of the validation/verification exercise and will include any recommendations arising from the deliberations of the Commission. The Report will be the Final Report as the second and third reports will be merged.

When the Final Report is submitted to me, I intend to bring it to Government and publish it soon after.