Legal cost of army deafness claims hits €85m

TAXPAYERS have paid out €85m to legal firms representing soldiers in army deafness cases.

Just a handful of firms are responsible for the majority of the 13,000 cases already settled. Over €250m has been paid out in compensation to date.

The top-earners are Patrick V Boland & Son, Newbridge, Co Kildare, who have already earned in excess of €12m.

At least 10 firms around the country have made over €1m since the deafness claims were first lodged eight years ago. However, the Government still faces 3,500 outstanding cases with about four fresh claims made every week.

A special early-settlement scheme for army deafness claims has been operating for the past two years but this ended during the summer.

It was aimed at providing an alternatives to going to the High Court and reducing legal costs. But the scheme was discontinued during the summer as part of a cutbacks drive.

The size of the average settlement has dropped from around €40,000 in the early days of the claims to around €10,000.

Speaking at a Public Accounts Committee meeting yesterday, Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the figures were astonishing and that steps should be taken to ensure such a scandal never happened again.

Cork South-Central TD John Dennehy said, however, that the early-claims system appeared to have worked by bringing the cost of claims under control.

“It at least has stopped the crazy rise in costs. Before no one had an idea what it would cost, but now the costs have come down and there is an accurate estimate of its total annual cost,” he said.

The legal fees account for 30% of the total bill for the army deafness claims, which have now topped €256m.

The final bill could be several hundred million euro but looks set to be well short of the nightmare scenario of €1bn outlined at the height of the row. It also emerged at yesterday’s meeting that banks are paying just €2.8m to the defence forces for escorting cash transits.

Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, John Perry, said it was galling for hard-pressed taxpayers to subsidise bank cash collection services.

“I will be asking the comptroller and auditor general to review the current arrangement with the banks. I hope the review will calculate the cost of providing this service at commercial rates, and examine the extent of the savings which banks are securing,” he said.