INTERVIEW
Making the system work Almost a year into her role as Chief Executive of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board, Rosalind Carroll spoke to The Bar Review about the Board’s role, and impending reforms in the sector. task oriented. It’s much harder to build up that camaraderie, whether that’s with stakeholders, or your own staff”. She is also aware that the organisation must try to prepare itself for the “unknowns” of the coming months: “Obviously, fewer cars on the road and people in offices, fewer people in bars and restaurants, all equals fewer
Ann-Marie Hardiman Managing Editor, Think Media Ltd.
accidents. Understanding what’s happening with those numbers is something that we have to start thinking about from a strategic perspective”.
Rosalind Carroll had been in her new role as Chief Executive of the Personal
Building trust
Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB) for just two weeks last March when the
The PIAB is the independent State body that assesses personal injury
country went into lockdown. Rather than having time to get to know staff and
compensation, and Rosalind sees this remit in its broadest sense: “Our most
stakeholders, she found herself in crisis management mode, as all but a small
important function is assessing claims and ensuring that we have that
number of staff moved immediately to remote working. That small team
independent, fair assessment of the claim that’s a good outcome for both
remains in the office, operating under strict public health guidelines, in order
parties. That should have a more broad contribution to insurance in Ireland
to fulfil the PIAB’s statutory functions, and Rosalind is proud of the speed with
and its functioning. Every time we make an assessment and that award is
which staff adapted, with services up and running again within a couple of
accepted, we hope that we start contributing more to that. We want to make
weeks. There have been significant challenges, such as trying to move from a
sure that people make informed decisions, that they understand what our role
predominantly paper-based service to electronic communication, or having to
in the process has been, and that they then begin to trust the PIAB and trust
cancel 7,000 medical assessments at short notice, but all of this was achieved
the system”.
without creating significant delays for claimants: “In 2019 our timeline for
Rosalind sees a number of parallels between this role and her previous job as
assessment was about 7.8 months – that’s the average time from when the
Director of the Residential Tenancies Board (RTB): “In the RTB one of our main
respondent [insurer] consents to the PIAB assessing the claim to an assessed
purposes was delivering a dispute resolution service to move away from
award being made. Last year it went to 8.91 months”.
litigation, and to provide a fair, independent service that was quicker and
One of the biggest challenges for Rosalind has been missing out on
cheaper than a litigation alternative, so the principle is very much the same”.
face-to-face engagement with a stakeholder group that includes the public,
There are parallels in terms of the wider issues too: “Housing is one of those
Government, the legal profession and insurers: “[Online meetings] are very
really topical, critical areas that affects everybody. Insurance is the same.
18 THE BAR REVIEW : Volume 26; Number 1 – February 2021
