Leo Varadkar (Dublin West, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

What was done, for example, was providing for voluntary open disclosure via the Civil Liability Act, as passed last year, and periodic payment. To move away from a system of awards of €15 million and €20 million, we now have periodic payment orders which allow payments to be made over a period of time and which can be reviewed as a patient's case changes.

That legislation was passed also. We also passed the Legal Services Regulation Act, which brings in pre-action protocols. The point of pre-action protocols is to speed up cases and make sure people do not get stuck in the courts for years. We also enacted the Mediation Act because we would prefer if matters such as this could be dealt with by mediation rather than going to trial at all. This is all part of a programme of reforms that have been waiting for a long time to get done. Many of these were done in the past two years and this is the next one.

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