Mr. Ciarán Breen:

I would like to make one response to the Deputy's remarks, purely to inform the debate. The cerebral palsy rate in Ireland, which is 1.5 to 2 per 1,000 live births, is very much in line with the standard across the First World in terms of obstetric care. The perinatal mortality rate, which is 3.5 per 1,000 live births, again reaches the level of not being out of step internationally. Our maternal mortality rate, which is 5.4, compares very favourably, for example, with that in the UK, which is 9.7. I absolutely accept that every case is a tragedy. We do not want any case to occur, of course. That would be the ideal situation, but just to inform the debate about where the relativities are, I thought it might be useful to offer those statistics. Finally, we do have open disclosure, as the Deputy knows, which is now on a statutory basis where hospitals are obliged to engage in open disclosure with families, following an adverse event.