The mother of a catastrophically injured plaintiff made these comments when attending the ruling in the High Court yesterday of her son’s most recent interim settlement.

The Judge approved of the seven figure interim settlement to cover the costs of the young boy’s care and therapies for the next four years. However, the mother informed the Court of her disquiet that a workable PPO has still not been implemented by the justice minister seven years after the Hegarty test case struck down the current PPO regime as unworkable.

When asked as to whether she was happy with the latest (fifth) interim settlement, the mother indicated to the Court that her preference would be to elect for a workable PPO at this stage rather than another interim settlement. 

She further stated that the preparation work involved in the many assessments of her son this year in advance of the fifth interim hearing has kept her away from spending quality time with her son. She indicated that being in a continuous loop of assessments every few years has become unbearable for her family. 

She informed the Court she has been writing to the justice minister for some time requesting a timeline for the implementation of a workable PPO and her communications to his office have fallen on deaf ears.  It is regrettable that she has no idea as to when a workable PPO will be introduced and she therefore informed the Court that she is repeating her request that a workable PPO be commenced without any further delay.

The Plaintiff, through his mother, brought High Court personal injury proceedings 11 years ago against a HSE run hospital, in respect of avoidable catastrophic injuries he acquired in the neonatal period as a result of substandard medical care.

The Plaintiff has cerebral palsy, a severe intellectual disability, he has limited speech and requires full time care. Previously, an anonymity order was sought (and granted by the Court), on behalf of the Plaintiff, prohibiting the publication of any matter relating to the proceedings which would identify the Plaintiff.

Marian Fogarty solicitor, Cantillons, for the Plaintiff stated: “Ireland is well behind the curve on PPOs as catastrophically injured plaintiffs in other jurisdictions have had workable PPO options available to them for circa 20 years including in Northern Ireland, England and Wales.

“The State’s choice in introducing PPO legislation in 2017 tied to HICP imposed an avoidable financial risk on catastrophically injured plaintiffs here that would foreseeably fail the very people it was meant to protect.

“The ongoing delay on the part of the State in failing to introduce a workable PPO is prolonging a PPO regime tied to the HICP that the State knew was structurally unsuitable for these claims. The effect of the State’s choice with HIPC and the ongoing delay in correcting it, impacts on the most vulnerable (and not on the State/Legislature who chose the index in the first place). This is most unfair as it directly reduces the ability of catastrophically injured plaintiffs to meet their basic care needs.

“The Irish State continues to perpetuate the harm already caused to these catastrophically injured plaintiffs (already injured through negligence) with the  inexplicable delay in introducing a workable PPO.

“The benefit of a PPO is that it would provide for less risk and more certainty than a lump sum settlement. They provide for an annual cost for care/therapies and they allow for yearly inflation so that in the subsequent years the annual PPO amount is not reduced by inflation. The majority of the annual costs for a catastrophically injured person will be the wages paid to carers so there was never any point in using a consumer price index which matched inflation to the cost of consumer goods (per the current PPO regime) as opposed to the cost of labour (what is required for the PPO to be workable). 

“However, that is precisely what the Government did in 2017 and the Courts correctly struck the PPO legislation down in 2019. It has been seven years since the Hegarty test case and we are still no further on. PPOs need to be index linked to wage inflation and the ministerial regulations allowing for them ought to be signed/commenced by the Minister for Justice urgently – the delay in implementing a workable PPO is unconscionable at this stage.”