8A.— (1) The Agency shall, by notice in Iris Oifigiúil, specify, having regard to the criteria set out in subsection (3), and after consultation with the Medical Council and any other person that the Agency considers appropriate, the minimum levels of indemnity applicable to classes of medical practitioners.

(2) The Agency shall, as regards the minimum levels of indemnity specified in a notice referred to in subsection (1), specify, in that notice, a date or the occurrence of an event from which such levels of indemnity are to take effect and different dates or events may be specified for different classes of medical practitioners.

(3) The criteria referred to in subsection (1) in respect of a class of medical practitioners are—

(a) the level of risk generally inherent in the medical specialty practised by the members of that class,

(b) the level of risk, from any act or omission of a member of that class, to the health, safety or welfare of any person to whom a duty of care is owed by the members of that class in their capacity as medical practitioners who fall within that class,

(c) the risks identified by providers of indemnity as particularly associated with the medical specialty practised by members of that class, and

(d) the level of awards or settlements made in proceedings where the cause of action arose out of an alleged breach of duty involving a member of that class in his or her capacity as a medical practitioner who falls within that class.

(4) In this section—

(a) “indemnity”, “medical practitioner” and “minimum level of indemnity” have the same meanings as they have in the Medical Practitioners Act 2007,

(b) “medical specialty” means a medical specialty recognised by the Medical Council under section 89 (1) of the Medical Practitioners Act 2007 and includes any subset of a medical specialty.]