Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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356. To ask the Minister for Health the policy of the HSE in respect of non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses being included in circumstances in which settlements are reached in or out of court by the HSE and a person taking a case against the HSE in the broad area of medical negligence or a failure of a duty of care; the number of such non-disclosure and confidentiality clauses that have been entered into by the HSE or representatives on its behalf in each year since 2010; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20119/18]

Simon Harris (Wicklow, Fine Gael)
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The management of clinical indemnity claims relating to the HSE has been delegated to the State Claims Agency under section 9 of the National Treasury Management (Amendment) Act 2000.

The State Claims Agency has advised my officials that it settles very few claims which are subject to a confidentiality agreement with the exception of cases settled through mediation. It has noted that part of the process of mediation is that parties are bound by a strict confidentiality provision contained in the mediation agreement. In the very rare case that the Agency agrees a confidentiality proviso, it is usually because of some extremely sensitive, controversial or disputed element of a claim which may be requested by either party.

The Agency has further advised that it does not formally record, on its IT system, the fact that any individual settlement is bound by a confidentiality clause. Therefore, this information is not readily available.