Tánaiste rejects compo board's €38m cost
The PIAB is due to be set up by Mary Harney this month to cut the escalating costs of insurance premiums by reducing legal costs.
This follows the claim earlier this year in the Motor Industry Advisory Board report that for every 1 paid out in compensation another 40c goes on legal costs.
But the Law Society has revealed that a report commissioned by them found the total annual running costs of the PIAB would be €38.1m.
The report, carried out by accountant Des Peelo, said the PIAB will only add another layer of bureaucracy to the process and duplicate the court system by taking on 305 extra staff.
Mr Peelo revealed there were 9,700 compensation cases last year and he claimed that plans for the PIAB had not been thought through.
Law Society director general Ken Murphy said: "We do not object to the PIAB as long as it makes economic sense but our report puts a whole question mark over this."
The Tánaiste's spokesman, however, rejected the claim that the board would cost €38m "This figure is way in excess of the amount which we have calculated and the report on these costs and the numbers employed in the new PIAB will be published shortly." The report said the estimated annual running costs of the PIAB was between €8 and €9 million.
Carried out by an Implementation Group for the PIAB, the report said it would take 111 people to run the new board. But Mr Murphy said he could not understand the disparity between what they estimated it would take to run the PIAB and the Tánaiste's report.
