New army deafness cases halved

THE number of new army deafness cases against the State has almost halved since the Government scrapped an early settlement scheme last July.

The Department of Defence has only received 227 fresh claims, or seven a week, in the seven months to the end of February.

Dozens of these had already been lodged with the Chief State Solicitor’s Office before the announcement by Defence Minister Michael Smith.

It compares to an average of almost 14 a week in the seven months up to the end of July, and more than 50 a week five years ago.

The scheme was scrapped in the hope of discouraging ex-soldiers, Air Corps and Naval personnel from coming forward with cases, and saving the State around €5 million.

The department introduced the out-of-court scheme in April 2000 to reduce legal bills associated with deafness claims.

Five legal firms have earned a sum well in excess of €30 million for representing Defence Force members in successful cases. But average legal costs fell from over €10,000 to just €4,000 under the scheme.

Up to the end of last June, the scheme helped to finalise 4,200 cases at a cost of €40 million in awards.

The 7,400 court settlements reached up to that time had cost more than €200 million, including legal fees.

A spokesperson for Mr Smith said the figures showed that the intention of scrapping the scheme appeared to have worked.

“One of the reasons the minister did it was because he felt people have had their opportunity to get cases in. Now that they are being fought in court again, they are trickling away, which was the aim,” he said.

The final amount taxpayers will have paid on army deafness claims is expected to be approximately €350 million, significantly less than the €1 billion estimated before the early settlement scheme was introduced.

Only 257 claimants received awards from the courts as 560 cases were dismissed, 65 were withdrawn and 864 did not proceed.