Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

That is a phenomenal cost.

To go back to the adverse medical events, as Mr. O'Brien calls them, regularly there is denial of responsibility at local level. When does the HSE decide that an adverse medical event is such? The HSE can only learn from such events at the time of their occurrence, rather than four years later when there is a case before the courts. I would have thought that if the executive believed that an adverse medical event had occurred, leading to an injury to a patient, it would issue an apology to the person concerned at that point and would not wait for five years to apologise, when the case is before the High Court. Would it not be better not to give barristers a few hundred thousand euro each, on both sides, for four years or more while the State Claims Agency does its job? The HSE could cut that €866 million bill in half if it took action as soon as the adverse medical event was confirmed, rather than waiting for four or five years. Most people who go through a difficult experience in a hospital want to know what actually happened and who was responsible. They want somebody to admit they made a mistake and to say sorry. We have seen that many times. The word "sorry", if uttered genuinely, could save a fortune. If people were up front and put their hands up, within weeks or months of the event, some of the cases might not proceed to court at all. How many of these cases of adverse medical events are prevented from proceeding to court through proper people management?