Martin Kenny (Sligo-Leitrim, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I thank all of our guests for their contributions this morning. I would like to tease out a few things a little more. Almost all the contributors have referred to class actions, multiparty actions and the impact they may have. I recently raised with the Minister for Health the case of a woman who had a settlement in court. She is one of probably 150 or 200 people in the country who have made the same complaint and each has been told by their solicitor that they would have to take a separate case and it would be fought separately by the State because it feels it has an obligation to defend taxpayers' money. That was the reason put forward. I am trying to be delicate. The excuse, or the reason, that is being put forward is that each individual's illness is particular to themselves and each has his or her own bodily system, which will react differently.

I find, however, that there is a tendency in these situations for the State to block or push back for as long as it can and when it realises that will not work it settles with a confidentiality clause. It will then set up a system to bring all those people together and say there will be redress. The difficulty is that the redress is part of that system of holding on for as long as possible, giving and admitting as little as possible.

What are the problems that could come into play in the multiparty action? There is a resistance to that. My colleagues, Deputies Pearse Doherty and Ó Laoghaire, have brought forward legislation and gone some distance with it but there is considerable resistance to this becoming law from the system. If there are valid reasons for that I would like to know what they are.