Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

A great deal of work has gone into this matter, including by the judicial group on medical negligence and by legal practitioners, some of whom are with us in the Gallery, have been at the coalface of many cases in which injury payments have been made and desire to see us putting in place legislation that is robust and caters for people's needs.

The Minister of State claims that he does not know how the index will work, but his capabilities go beyond that. What is being sought in this amendment is exactly what the judicial group asked for, namely, a balancing and factoring in of earnings and costs related to medical care. The exact way in which to do that would be a reserved function for the Minister. It is not beyond the Government's capabilities to do that. These elements must be factored in. Generally speaking, the cost of medical care and treatment has increased more than the consumer price index, CPI. The Minister of State said that it could increase less than the CPI, but the experience over the past while has been to the contrary. We need to factor in an index of care costs. That is what I am asking the Government to do. How it does that is its prerogative. The legislation would call upon the Government to strive to take account of these costs. Actuarial assistance would be provided to it in making that a reality.

I do not accept that "five years" is no time, as has been suggested. Under the legislation, there would be a review after five years of a possibly more relevant index if the Minister believed it necessary.

That means that the Minister of the day might think it is not necessary and will not conduct a review. Nothing can be done then. There is no obligation to conduct a review.

How long after five years does it mean? Does it start at six or seven years? When it starts, how long will it take? Will it be another two years? When it is concluded, will it be another three years before it is implemented? Suddenly someone who has been catastrophically injured is no longer a child and has different needs and may lag behind. The Minister of State should accept that some of the people advising committee members on some of these issues are genuinely well-motivated. They are at the coalface who want to ensure an outcome that all of us want to ensure, that people are not left short.

I appreciate that it is important to get this Bill through and we would have been prepared to move might and main to do it before the recess if we had to, but Report Stage has not been scheduled for this side of the recess. We do not need to be in a big flap and panic on this. We can tease out some of these points and I said that cognisant of the fact it was the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Health that had some of these detailed discussions and not this committee.