Marc MacSharry (Sligo-Leitrim, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

I would like to raise the issue of the Legal Services Regulation Act 2015. It was signed into law by the President on 20 December 2015. The new section 32B which the Act introduced into the Civil Liability and Courts Act 2004 provided that there shall be pre-action protocols relating to clinical negligence actions.

The inserted section specifically states, "The Minister shall by regulations make provision specifying the terms of the pre-action protocol" which will involve full disclosure of medical and other records. It was described by the then Minister for Justice and Equality as an historic day. Why has that section of that Act not been commenced by the Government, specifically by the Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Charlie Flanagan? Had it been, the Government would not be in the mess it is in today in terms of the provision of information to patients, and it would not have the head of the State Claims Agency saying at a meeting of the finance committee today that things would have been completely different had pre-action protocols been in place. The former Minister for Justice and Equality, Deputy Frances Fitzgerald, was correct that it was an historic day but it was an historic day in what epitomises the Government, namely, saying it is doing it but really doing nothing. I ask that the Minister for Health ask the Taoiseach to clarify on the Order of Business tomorrow specifically why the Government has sat on its hands in commencing legislation passed by this House that would have prevented the tragedy of the cervical screening disaster.

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