Jim O'Callaghan (Dublin Bay South, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the introduction of the Bill on Second Stage. Fianna Fáil will be supporting the Bill, just as it supported it in Seanad Éireann. It is important that we try to have the legislation enacted as quickly as possible. There has been a delay not only on the part of this and the last Oireachtas, but also going back many years. There have been delays by the Government, the Dáil and the Seanad in introducing vital legislation for people who find themselves in one of the most difficult positions in which anyone could find himself or herself. Generally, these issues arise when someone has suffered catastrophic injuries, as the Minister of State said, and an award of damages is made by the court in favour of a young plaintiff, a minor in the care of his or her family. It is not, however, limited to a scenario involving young children who suffer catastrophic injuries at birth. It is also relevant to persons who sustain serious and catastrophic injuries during the course of life.

I commend the Minister of State on introducing the Bill because the definition of catastrophic injuries is simple, yet it communicates accurately what they are. It refers to them as being injuries sustained by a person that result in a permanent disability that require the person to receive lifelong care for all activities. One of the most tragic events that can happen to any person occurs at the start of life, at birth, when, as a result of fault or an accident, he or she suffers catastrophic injuries. Such injuries will dominate his or her life for as long as he or she lives. Not only are they catastrophic for the child, but they are also catastrophic for his or her parents who would have hoped and believed they were going to be able to bring home a child and bring him or her up in the ordinary way. Instead, they discover that they have a child who will require lifelong care. That is the reason the legislation is so important. In many respects, for parents who go through the court process for the purpose of seeking the damages to which they are entitled, it is traumatic. That process will be helped by this legislation.

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