Ms Sara Moorehead:

In regard to the pre-action protocols, there is the dispute that it would require legislation. In regard to doing anything, even in case management terms, that has all been recommended as part of the working group report by Mr. Justice Quirke and Ms Justice Irvine. At present, there are simply no resources to do anything in the courts with medical negligence. It requires to be done as part of a very significant picture. One of the difficulties is that the courts are spending a huge amount of time dealing with these periodic payments on an informal basis. People are coming back to discuss the price of nappies in the High Court for a day every two years. They are virtually finished with one set of periodic payments on an informal basis and they are back again because there is no statutory scheme in place. It is an appalling waste of court time.

The periodic payments should be brought in. It would bring certainty to everybody and would mean the likes of Ms Courtney would not be bringing her daughter to all the expert witnesses. One of the things about the situation, as it stands, is that because no structure is in place for periodic payments, everything is up for grabs when they come back every two years, which is no good to anybody. It is no good to the people involved and to the doctor who cannot bring finality to the case. It results in fresh legal costs every time. Since 2012, the Legislature has been urged to act and it has the support of all parties. The 2010 report and the second report in 2012 recommended that there should be periodic payments. It would not be a huge difficulty to bring it in.