Seán Fleming (Laois-Offaly, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

My last quick point is a very short one on State Claims Agency payments. It is a big issue. Given that NAMA and the State Claims Agency handle it sometimes, we ask them about it and sometimes we ask Mr. O'Brien about it. In a nutshell, the figures presented to us today for 2014 show that at the end of 2013, the estimated outstanding liability was €1.084 billion. I am taking that directly from the figures. During the course of the year, in respect of that liability, €134 million was paid out to the State Claims Agency. They are HSE figures. The liability at the end of 2014, based on the figures before us, was €1.227 billion. That shows that the estimated liabilities increased by €273 million during the year. The figure went up €143 million. During the year, we paid out €130 million. That means that an extra €273 million came into the system in 2014, which seems a very high figure given that there was only €1 billion there to start with and it probably covers cases going back over many years. I know that all Mr. O'Brien does is write the cheque that the State Claims Agency asks for and we put it into Supplementary Estimates, as Mr O'Brien said we did last year. We will probably have to do the same again.

Mr O'Brien might send us back information. He might have to talk to the State Claims Agency for an estimate of the breakdown of that new €273 million that went on in 2014 and the breakdown between compensation to people for medical negligence and the other legal costs that are associated with that. We have seen on several occasions in the past that the legal and other costs associated with a claim can be 50% on top of the costs and, ultimately, one third of the total payment. Mr. O'Brien might comment but also send us his best analysis. I worry about that figure because nobody is responsible for it. It happened in the HSE, the State Claims Agency manages it, and we are here to settle the price. The State Claims Agency does not feel ownership of getting the best value for money because it happened in Mr. O'Brien's department. He has no involvement, to some extent, in the final settlement, because it is over to the HSE. I am afraid that from the taxpayer's point of view, nobody feels complete ownership of this problem because it is split between the two areas. Mr. O'Brien might comment and send us a report on it.