Ceisteanna ó Cheannairí - Leaders' Questions
Dail Éireann — 2026-02-04
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Micheál Martin (FF), Cork South-Central

Historically, it is fair to say the cultural norm in medicine was not to disclose openly. Over time, that has changed, to be honest to all involved, but we still have a distance to go. We learn through error and medicine is not failure-proof, although the more you create a systemic approach to medicine, the less error you have. The cult of the miracle worker or of the brilliant person was always a challenge and a cultural challenge within health. It is a system-wide approach that reduces adverse incidents, bad practice and poor practice. We must have a systemic approach and the culture has to be all about that. In most of the training colleges now, it is all about that, with multidisciplinary teams working together and every person on that team being an important cog in the wheel to make sure the surgery or treatment of a condition goes properly. Open disclosure is the key to that. Non-disclosure agreements have no part in that.

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Record URI: https://data.oireachtas.ie/akn/ie/debateRecord/dail/2026-02-04/debate/main
Retrieved: 2026-08-14T04:54:35+00:00
Sitting date: 2026-02-04