Mr. Robert Watt:

The cases we are discussing today are not covered by the State Claims Agency, but there is a wider issue about medical negligence and cases taken against the State which involve a whole range of issues around patient safety and care and clinical pathways, and how we establish harm, fault, negligence and damages and all those various issues. We are getting into an area that is not covered this morning, but the Meenan report has set out a variety of recommendations and the Department is looking at those with our colleagues in the Department of Justice and elsewhere. There are certainly measures which, over time, we hope to take to reduce the number of cases and to improve how we manage those cases to reduce the liability for the taxpayer.

It is a very significant cost. The cost of the State Claims Agency is going up every year. Ten years ago, it would have been €200 million per year and now it is more than €400 million per year. The costs of these cases are mounting and it is a big challenge for the State.