The Tánaiste has moved swiftly to publish the heads of the Bill placing the Personal Injuries Assessment Board on a statutory footing. She has promised it will start hearing cases early next year. Initially at least it will only examine cases concerning personal injuries, but motor accidents and personal liability cases are likely to be added later. It will also deal only with cases where liability is admitted by the respondent.
Ms Harney and employers' organisations have expressed confidence that this, combined with measures to combat insurance fraud, will lead to greater competition in the insurance market and lower premiums. That will be the acid test for the new body.
It is indisputable that insurance costs in Ireland are unacceptably high. As the Motor Insurance Assessment Board found, 40 per cent of insurance costs were accounted for by the costs of lawyers and experts and associated administration. The time taken to process claims is often inordinately long.
The PIAB is not a panacea for all the problems associated with the delivery of compensation to the victims of avoidable accidents and negligence. Accident prevention, a willingness on both sides in a case to negotiate meaningfully at an early stage, the elimination of fraudulent and exaggerated claims and court reform will all play their part. There has also been little public acknowledgement of the costs associated with our preference for a privately-funded system, as opposed to a state one, for compensating victims, as exists in most European countries.
Nonetheless, if the PIAB succeeds in processing claims quickly and in an informal atmosphere, to the satisfaction of both victims and respondents, it will have provided a very welcome service. The enthusiasm and dedication of its first chairwoman, Ms Dorothea Dowling, suggests it will work hard at this - and she enjoys great goodwill.
The Law Society and the Bar Council have, as often before, issued warnings about its costs and the dangers of inadequate representation for claimants in this system. On previous occasions they have made known their own proposals for reform of the existing system.
Their warnings, and their proposals for reform, might receive a more sympathetic hearing had they turned their collective minds to the inefficiency, waste and abuse of the existing system long before they were faced with the stark threat to their incomes represented by PIAB. What they have offered to the debate in recent months has been too little, too late. It will now be up to the PIAB to deliver on the big promises made on its behalf. It must be wished well.