Billy Kelleher (Cork North Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I welcome the witnesses before the joint committee. At the outset, I note members have received a lot of correspondence from all sides and none, including people with a particular interest and those with specific cases and views as to how the system may not have worked for them when they were taking medical negligence cases. While this issue is quite complex in many ways, one point that is obvious is that when a person is injured, he or she is entitled to seek redress. This is a simple fundamental. Another obvious point is the State is very often picking up the tab in many cases and a third is that people are left with catastrophic injuries and must live with them for the rest of their lives.