The Tánaiste will bring proposals to Cabinet by the end of the month aimed at tackling high insurance costs. These will be based on all the material at Ms Harney's disposal, according to a spokesman for the Department of Enterprise and Employment.
This includes the report of the Implementation Group on the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, reported on in The Irish Times yesterday, and the report of the Motor Insurance Advisory Board, as well as other reports on the industry.
The spokesman for the Tanaiste said that the report of the PIAB Implementation Group would be published at that time. He added that, while warning about excessive expectations from the PIAB, it recommended that it be set up. The report sets out the framework and structures for doing so.
The Bar Council has called for the immediate publication of this report. In a statement it said it had "been concerned that the basis of PIAB has not been discussed and analysed properly."
It also endorsed one of the proposals in the report, that the current, litigation-based system be looked at with a view to making savings there.
"The Government should now look carefully at the proposed PIAB and ask whether it is going to achieve its aims or whether other alternatives should be considered such as reforming the present system," it said.
Meanwhile, the Irish Congress of Trade Unions has denied that a "compensation culture" exists in the workplace. "Whoever is responsible for the high levels of insurance costs for industry at the moment, whether it is the legal profession milking the system or whether it is the insurance companies themselves, it is clearly not the injured workers.
"We know for instance that in most years there are approximately 22,000 serious accidents in workplaces in Ireland, usually due to management failure. However, only approximately 8,000 claims are taken," ICTU said in a statement.