Tánaiste Appoints CEO Designate of Personal Injuries Assessment Board

'PIAB will play major role in ensuring a better deal for all parties' - Harney

'Consumers can now look forward to more reductions' - Tánaiste

The Tánaiste today announced the appointment of Patricia Byron as CEO Designate of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board with effect from 1/02/04.

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board is to be established, as part of the Government's Insurance Reform programme, to reduce the high costs associated with delivering compensation as well as providing a user friendly, transparent and efficient compensation service to genuine victims of negligent accidents.

Ms Byron said:- "The Personal Injuries Assessment Board will offer speedier finalisation of cases for the genuine victims of accidents in an entirely transparent system, and without the associated high legal costs. I look forward to the work of getting the PIAB up and running in the early part of this year."

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board Act 2003 was signed on 28 December 2003. The Act will be commenced in the near future when the new body is ready to start dealing with cases. A recruitment campaign will begin shortly and much progress has been made in relation to securing a premises and the necessary IT systems to allow the Body to operate.

Congratulating Patricia Byron on her appointment the Tánaiste said "this will be both an exciting and challenging new position with the opportunity of playing a major role in ensuring a better deal for all parties - both claimants and respondents. Litigation costs in personal injury cases have contributed to the high cost of insurance in this country and genuine claimants have had to wait far too long for their cases to be settled. I am confident that the PIAB will address these problems."

The Tánaiste also welcomed the growing evidence of reductions in insurance premia as a result of the Insurance Reform programme and looked forward to more reductions as the PIAB commences operations and new legislation is brought in to deal with fraudulent and exaggerated claims.

Notes for Editors

Patricia Byron has worked in the insurance industry for over 20 years and has been at the forefront of significant changes in the sector. Having started her career in Norwich Union Insurance under a graduate training programme, she moved to loss adjusting, where she spent 14 years dealing directly with the public, leading risk management, property and liability claims resolution programmes. She was the first female loss adjuster in the country in 1985 and the first female president of the Insurance Institute of Dublin in 1994.

Over recent years, Ms. Byron has chaired a reform programme within the Motor Insurers Bureau of Ireland, the body charged with administering compensation to the victims of motor accidents involving uninsured and untraced drivers. As part of the executive management team in Hibernian Insurance for the last five years, she has also played a key role in merger, decentralization and change management programmes.

Ms. Byron is married with two sons and was educated at Loreto College, Navan, Co. Meath and University College Dublin.

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