a day ago
No one comes out of personal injury award fiasco well
Accusing Minister for Justice Jim O'Callaghan of a U-turn on personal injury award guidelines might be a stretch given it appears he was careful not to state publicly that he was in favour of the Judicial Council plan to increase awards by 17 per cent.
But he certainly did nothing to suggest he opposed it or that he intended to blank the Judicial Council on this issue in dramatic fashion this week.
Was the plan simply to sit back and measure the scale of opposition to the proposal for five whole months? If so, what does this tell us about policymaking here? Where's the leadership?
The whole fiasco simply serves to highlight the mockery that is the process by which such a sensitive issue is addressed – a classic Irish solution to an Irish problem.
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Following last year's Supreme Court ruling, we have the bizarre stage play of the Judicial Council conducting periodic reviews of the guidelines as provided for under the 2019 legislation it operates under.
However, its recommendations are just that. Passed to the Minister for Justice, they have no force until the minister lays them before the Oireachtas alongside a resolution to give them force of law when backed by a vote.
That way, a judiciary that can be prickly at any perceived intrusion into their realm can maintain its appearance of independence by reviewing the rules. Politicians, for their part, can largely wash their hands of responsibility by arguing that the proposals are not theirs, but the judiciary's.
Meanwhile, costs rise and Ireland's compensation culture continues largely untouched.
When the Judicial Council concedes that the outcome of this, its first review of the guidelines, amounted to little more than applying the impact of consumer price inflation over the intervening period, the circus is complete.
The process is indefensible.
It remains unclear whether the decision was of the Minister's own volition or at the behest of the Cabinet or the Coalition party leaders eager to damp down the flames of fury from industry and consumers alike over the increases that would inevitably follow – not least given his petulant pronouncement after the decision that a failure to present the 17 per cent hike might only see courts ramping up awards anyway and encourage people to bypass the Injuries Resolution Board.
The guidelines that have started to put manners on personal injury awards remain in place, complete with provisions to curb precisely those tendencies, as the Minister well knows.
