With reference to the Courts Act, 1988, something like 303 cases have been heard since its implementation, over 40 per cent of which await appeal to the Supreme Court. It was hoped that, in the process of time, implementation of that Act would bring greater predictability of awards so as to avoid the necessity for fully fledged legislation or court proceedings in all cases. Unfortunately it will take a little time to assess that but it does appear at present as though it is not having — though it is early days yet — the kind of effect which the insurers had indicated would be the case should that Act be put in place.
Therefore, we must examine broader measures. Regrettably one of those is that we are proving to be — by any comparative statistic on which I can put my hands — rather careless on the roads and, as a consequence, the incidence of accidents, fatalities and costs on all fronts are exceedingly high, running at twice the European average. I take the point that there are considerable numbers of people who have been unable to get insurance cover. But there are others who decide for one reason or another — I am not going to go into the question of whether they can afford it — they will not take insurance cover. The numbers of people driving uninsured vehicles is approaching a national scandal.