Twenty-five jobs are to be created at an outsourcing centre in west Cork, which will process queries on behalf of the Personal Injuries Assessment Board (PIAB).

The contract was won amid keen international competition by the SWS Group, at its Business Process Outsourcing Centre, at the West Cork Business and Technology Park, Clonakilty. The company currently employs 100 at its outsourcing division.

The Personal Injuries Assessment Board is a recently established statutory body designed to streamline the insurance claims process.

It has been dealing with queries since the start of the month and will start processing workplace liability claims from June.

The jobs announcement was made by the Minister for Agriculture, Food and Forestry, Mr Walsh. He said: "This is very positive news for the West Cork Business and Technology Park, which is progressing extremely well. This state-of-the-art facility now employs 300 people in a variety of high-value office-based activities and is poised for further growth in coming months."

The PIAB will not be allowed to hear complex cases and is unlikely to reduce the amount of court time involved in personal injury lawsuits, the Oireachtas was told recently.

Therefore, it will inevitably be limited to processing relatively straightforward disputes that would previously have been settled out of court, the Courts Service said.