Stephen Donnelly (Wicklow, Fianna Fail)
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Yes, there is much work ongoing. The HSE is using multidisciplinary patient safety tools to look at this to identify and minimise risk. This approach is embedded in the clinical strategies, for example, in the national maternity strategy. It is worth noting that analysis conducted by my Department shows there is a time lag of about nine years between an adverse incident occurring, for example, where there is medical negligence, and an award being made in the case of catastrophic birth injuries, which I think the Deputy referenced. This indicates that any effect from the patient safety initiatives would take several years to come through in terms of reduced claims. We need to keep pushing on that and make sure our clinicians, who are pushing for more improvements and safer practices all the time, have the resources they need. The national maternity strategy is fully funded and it looks at this issue very methodically.

Nonetheless, I am keen that we take further action. I am considering measures to examine what more can be done. As I said, there is one major increase in costs and it is a technical driver. It is essentially the real rate of return, the investment return plaintiffs are assumed to obtain should they invest the lump-sum settlement award. Simply put, the higher the real rate of return applied to the lump sum, the lower the reward and vice versa. It is a technical issue.

I am in exactly the same space as the Deputy in that this is ultimately about patient safety. We need to ensure our clinicians have the tools and resources to systematically identify, reduce and, wherever possible, eliminate risks for patients.