Clare Daly (Dublin Fingal, Independent) | Oireachtas source

In some ways, we are going around in circles. We believe that this is genuinely bizarre, if we are talking about changing culture, etc. We accept the idea that the information would not be admissible as evidence of fault or liability, and our amendments do not remove any issues in terms of liability.

What we are talking about is information regarding the facts. We are talking about an open disclosure meeting where the person is told what went wrong. If the person decides to take a civil action later on, he or she still has to go to court. That evidence will be produced. It will be up to the court to determine whether liability is with the health service provider or whatever. The case still has to be heard. As far as we are concerned, the idea that somebody would be given factual information that later would be contradicted and the person could not say anything about that, is ridiculous. It neither negates the protections that are there for apologies nor amounts to an admission of liability.

Such laws in other states only indemnify an apology. They do not say anything about the information gathered in the course of an open disclosure. What we are talking about here is the information gathered in the course of an open disclosure. As it stands, without our amendments, the patient or his or her family would be prevented from relying on that information in civil proceedings later on. There is no guarantee they would win the proceedings or anything like that, but the idea that they would go in with only half the information when they know, having been told at a meeting a couple of months beforehand, what actually happened and not be able to use that, is incredible. It is mad. It would breed substantially more distrust. It will undermine the value in this legislation.

It is regrettable that the Minister has not taken on board these amendments. Not only would we be saving people emotional damage, we would be saving the State a lot of money if we brought in these amendments.

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