Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 14 June 2018

Public Accounts Committee

Implications of CervicalCheck Revelations (Resumed)

9:00 am

Mr. Ciarán Breen:

Yes. If I may, I will explain some of the changes because the changes that we have brought about are very precise. Traditionally, if we were dealing with a medical negligence case where there is a plaintiff and a defendant, and we are obviously always for the defendant, we would engage a series of expert reports, have the person examined and engage other experts in relation to quantum. We are not doing any of that. We are immediately, in our defences which we are required to put in, we are admitting breach of duty in relation to the non-disclosure point, and we are asking the plaintiffs in the cases if they would share their reports with us immediately so that we can get to mediation as quickly as we possibly can. I need to explain this to the Deputy. He is asking me what changes are there and I need to explain them to him. By doing it in this particular way, we are short-circuiting these cases by an incredibly shortened time.