Jennifer Carroll MacNeill (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)

I think it is important that I declare an interest in this to the Cathaoirleach. I have a child who had a neonatal brain injury and who goes through the State claims process, so I am not just the Minister for Health but a parent in precisely that situation. It is very important that I disclose that, although it is quite private. It is important that it be understood. I have a personal understanding of this particular process, the interim steps and the way in which it is managed.

I recognise the work of Professor Rhona Mahony. I have taken the time to try to meet some of the women who were behind the UCC research that was done in relation to that, to better understand their experience of the medical litigation system. None of those people want to be in the system. There is not a single parent who is in that system who wants to be there. Every one of them would rather not have had that experience. In every single case, they would like to avoid that for anybody else.

On the report, I recognise that report but I also recognise that it was chaired by somebody who was the master of a maternity hospital where I repeatedly see events being presented in the court, including my own event. I have questions and I had questions at the time. I do not believe that report is the panacea, necessarily. I have questions about accountability within hospitals. I recognise that many of those maternity hospitals are voluntary hospitals, that there is a board structure, and that accountability - I mean real accountability - is considered in a different way.

The real issue here is not about the implementation of a different issue. There are measures in the programme for Government about a dedicated medical negligence court. We, in essence, already have that because we have dedicated lists to this. We, in essence, already have mediation, but it is mediation that is essentially litigation by a different name. What we do not have yet is a culture of real acknowledgement of wrongdoing, of anticipating the mental health and care implications of that and of supporting mothers and babies who will have difficulty, and we just do not understand the nature of that difficulty yet. The programme for Government goes beyond the implementation of this. As Minister, I have tried to begin a body of work on this but there is also so much else to do that is urgent. What I really want to see from the maternity hospitals, as leaders in this field, is a very different attitude to openness, accountability, investigation and responsiveness, and proactivity in wrapping their arms around women and babies who have had very adverse outcomes. The Deputies will be aware that this in particular is why it is so important that where I see patterns that are resulting in really adverse outcomes, in Portiuncula or any other maternity system, we have to make the interventions to protect women and babies.