Mr. Ciaran Breen:

Yes, we do where we get a very detailed letter of claim and we would go to mediation. For example, we had a case about a woman where there was a failure to diagnose her cancer going back some time. By the time the proceedings would be up and ready and issued, there was a real danger that the woman would not survive. In that particular case we went to an early mediation with the family based on a substantial letter of claim and, in fact, settled that matter well prior to when a summons might be issued.

We get about 80,000 adverse incidents notified to us every year. Once we get letters of claim in, if we can at all, we try to move to settle the cases at the earliest opportunity. What we do not want to do - I know this is probably what the Deputy thinks we are doing but we are not doing it - is engage in a game with people of dragging things out. We have no interest in doing that. For example, we support the open disclosure project which we have rolled out to 30 hospitals at this stage and about nine maternity units. That is all about making sure doctors own up to their mistakes.

The third case the Deputy mentioned, which was the case immediately after the Dylan Gaffney Hayes case, came before Ms Justice Irvine as he said. She did not actually make any criticism of the State Claims Agency per se but she did make a criticism of the HSE and I accept, by inference, of us. In that particular case, because we felt that the manner in which we handled that case was completely above board, we went back in to her in the afternoon and indicated to her that we had an issue in relation to her remarks which had been reported widely that morning and on RTE. Having chronologised the case for her and indicated the various things we did and the timescales within which we did them, Ms Justice Irvine withdrew her remarks. They were not widely reported but that actually happened.