Will the Minister give a time prediction as to when he expects the new system of pre-trial procedures and the regulations he proposes to make in respect of legal representation to come into effect? Will it be one year or six months?

I understand that the enactment of the Courts Act, 1986, is expected to result in some improvement in the pre-trial stage in personal injury cases, particularly in regard to their listing. With regard to further improvements, the proposed courts and court officers Bill is at an advanced stage of preparation in the Department and it contains provisions which will increase the jurisdiction of the Master of the High Court to enable him to deal with a range of matters which must be dealt with at present by High Court judges in court. It is also proposed that further jurisdiction may be conferred on the Master by rules of court and one effect of this will be that a system of pre-trial procedures may be introduced by rules of court. These would provide that, before a case could be put down for trial, the Master would conduct a preliminary hearing with a view to having subsidiary issues arising in the case settled which would result in a shortening of trials. Rules of court for pre-trial procedures could be expected to make provision also for automatic discovery between parties of certain documents in personal injury cases, the exchange of reports of expert evidence and for procedures to ensure that as much agreement as possible in expert evidence is arrived at before the case comes to trial. The sooner the legislation is under way the better, as far as I am concerned, because it would all fall into place fairly rapidly. I would appreciate help from other parties to get this legislation to the House as soon as possible.