Colm Burke (Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I think the Minister has explained this matter. In fairness, we have appointed a judge to chair this tribunal and two other people with at least ten years experience will be appointed to the tribunal. One of the major issues in assessing damages is the foreseeability of something happening in the future.That is what a court will have to do in assessing damages. Likewise, the tribunal will have to take a high probability of cancer recurring into account. If that is highly likely, and in most cases it is, the compensation will have to reflect this likelihood. The award is made on the basis that there is a very high probability of recurrence. That is what the tribunal is for, that is, to make sure that people are compensated in the appropriate way. That includes taking something that is highly likely to happen in the future into account in the assessment. It is important that this message goes out. The impression may be given that women are only being compensated for what has happened. We must also remember that they are entitled to compensation for what may happen in the future as a result of negligence that happened in the past. That is important.