Dr. Peter Boylan:

All of the international evidence is that it reduces litigation. If something goes wrong, one puts one's hand up and says: "I am terribly sorry. We made a mistake." The outcome might well be disastrous and tragic and will affect that family for the rest of their lives, but at least one gets on with it. The current system is bad. If something goes wrong, it will be two or three years down the line when the parents might initiate a legal action. Then it takes another three or four years. One is facing five, ten or 15 years for a case to reach either settlement or a court. If there was a system of open disclosure and a proper system of audit, which again comes back to governance, it would be possible to spot and fix problems early.

For example, if a particular clinician has many cases against him or her and they are all in a particular area, it may take five, ten or 15 years for the cases to come through. With a proper system of open disclosure and audit, they can be spotted early and the problems can be addressed and fixed, which is what patients need in the future.

The current adversarial litigation system is not helpful to anybody. It is incredibly stressful for the parents going through this. Very often parents of a child with a severe disability, which they feel may be associated with the birth, sue because they do not get State support and are left on their own. There have been tragic and very moving descriptions in newspapers of carers, including one in The Irish Timesa few months before Christmas. It can have a devastating effect on a couple's life looking after a child who may be in his or her 20s and who needs constant 24-hour care in terms of changing nappies, feeding, etc.

The State needs to step in. Sometimes parents sue because they do not get State support. State support should be the first thing and then if there is a problem, it should be analysed by an independent expert who will make recommendations about changing practice, which would help other parents and hopefully reduce the risk of the same thing happening. We can never eliminate risk; it will happen. People make mistakes; that is the nature of us as humans. We can minimise these things, but the current system is not working in anybody's interest.