Mediators’ Institute of Ireland welcomes announcement to publish mediation bill

The president of the Mediator’s Institute of Ireland has welcomed the announcement that the Mediation Bill will be published.

The Tánaiste’s response to an oral PG posed by Deputy Josepha Madigan in the Dáil yesterday stated that the 2012 bill would be published in the autumn.

President of the MII, Sabine Walsh said: “I welcome the announcement by the Tánaiste and Minister of Justice, yesterday in the Dáil, that she intends to publish the long awaited Mediation Bill in the autumn.

“This legislation will promote mediation as a viable, effective and efficient adjunct to court proceedings and the enactment of the Bill has the potential to divert many civil and commercial disputes from our courts and save billions in the process.”

She added: “There appears to be widespread political support in the Oireachtas for the Bill and there is now a great opportunity for this Dáil to demonstrate its effectiveness by enacting the Mediation Bill as soon as possible.”

The programme, using a voluntary process of conflict prevention and resolution to avoid further costly public litigation, outlines that mediation would deliver significant cost and time savings for businesses and the State.

The MII estimates that legal costs in relation to civil cases in 2011 are estimated to have been €1.17 billion. This number was calculated from figures contained in the 2011 Court’s Services Annual Report. The formula takes costs claimed by the winning party, multiplies this by two to get the costs for both sides of the case and then takes account of the fact that 90 per cent of civil cases are settled before court.