Dr. Tony Holohan:

It is not really a change. The voluntary system, as provided for in the civil liability legislation, and the mandatory system to be provided for in this Bill will sit alongside and complement each other. Voluntary disclosure and the protection it offers are about the totality of patient safety incidents. Even though we say "voluntary disclosure", we do not mean "optional". Rather, we mean that disclosure should take place in every situation, in the right way and according to the kinds of issue that I referenced at the end of my opening statement. We are trying to determine what the evidence tells us about the best means of achieving the greatest likelihood of that happening in every situation. In policy terms, our approach is to have a combination of supports that give assurances to practitioners that, if they do the right thing and do it in the right way, protections will be offered along the lines I have described - we can set them out in more detail - from FoI, admissibility and so on. This is meant to encourage them to do the right thing, but will be complemented by an absolute requirement that makes mandatory the reporting of serious patient safety incidents as opposed to every patient safety incident. There is a difference in nature and number between serious patient safety incidents and all patient safety incidents. The two approaches are not at variance. It is not a switch from one position to another. They will sit in legislative and policy terms alongside each other and complement each other.