Mr. Ciarán Breen:

I might answer in the context of the litigation we have. I agree with the Deputy. I say at the outset, quite genuinely, that we do not pursue anybody through the courts. We try, wherever possible, to settle these cases by way of mediation to avoid that court process. Going back to the pre-action protocol, it would be a considerable advantage if we had that to avoid all of this.

To come back to a catastrophically injured victim, whether it is a child or adult, there is little doubt that when we are evaluating the overall cost of that, the largest item is the cost of future care - for example, aids, appliances, assistive technology and things like that. The allegation that will always be made by the plaintiffs in those actions is that the current level of services will not support the kind of care that they need. We have had some very fruitful discussions - they are ongoing - with the HSE on this particular issue about catastrophic injury cases and putting in place some kind of care packages more quickly outside the litigation process, which would be of assistance.