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

As Deputy Micheál Martin said, new information and revelations continue to become available on this issue. That is exactly why we have established this inquiry, namely, to get to the bottom of this and establish the facts in order that we can put things right to restore confidence in cancer screening. Like other Members, members of the Government are often hearing information that is new. That is why it is right for us to set up the inquiry, which will be able to get to the bottom of all these facts and give people the answers they need.

I understand there are nine outstanding court cases with perhaps one further case where a letter of claim has issued but proceedings have not yet begun. Nobody wants to see sick people or terminally ill women dragged through the courts. The public does not want that and it is in nobody's interest. It is certainly not in the interests of the taxpayer in the longer run, of confidence in our health service or of patients or citizens. I have asked the Attorney General to work with the State Claims Agency to examine the different cases with a view to settling them, albeit it takes two sides to do so, or resolving them by way of mediation as soon as possible in order that they do not have to go to court. I made that request to the Attorney General last week. It may turn out that one or more of these cases is similar or identical to that of Ms Vicky Phelan but it may also be the case that some are very different. We cannot assume that all of these cases are the same. In each case, a medical expert will have to look at the smear or slide and determine what category it falls into. Certainly, the Government's intention is to settle these cases as soon as possible or deal with them by way of mediation if possible. I have asked the Attorney General to work with the State Claims Agency to do exactly that in the short period ahead.

The best thing we can do in the longer term is to avoid these cases going to court in the first instance. That can be done in a number of ways. A whole reform programme has been initiated by the Government over the past couple of years to reduce the number of cases ending up in court or requiring lengthy legal proceedings. The House will be aware of what we have done already around open disclosure by way of putting voluntary open disclosure in the Civil Liability (Amendment) Act, which was passed last year and which will be enacted in law by June.

We have also announced this week that we will put in place mandatory open disclosure through the patient safety Bill in cases of serious incidents.

There has also been a programme of law reform. For example, the Mediation Act has been enacted and is now a reality. The Act will allow mediation to occur in more circumstances. In the past couple of weeks, some cases have already been settled through mediation. We would like to see more. There are also periodic payment orders. The legislation for those has been passed in order to ensure that we do not have the same situation we have had for years in the context of very big settlements of €10 million or €13 million being made when it would be better to have settlements over a period that could be increased as needs be. Other new legislation we introduced is the Legal Services Regulation Act, which the Deputy mentioned. It provides for pre-action protocols to speed up cases so that they are not continually being referred. That has not been commenced yet because the Legal Services Regulatory Authority, which is the body that will deal with it, has only been established in the past few months.

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