Mr. Michael Donnellan:

It is quite complicated but, essentially, they relate to claims taken by prisoners against us. There are three types of such claims. The first is where a prisoner challenges the validity of the order holding him or her in prison. Second, prisoners can take a challenge against us for a decision we make about them on behalf of the Minister. In the case of a decision on entitlement to one third remission, for example, a prisoner can take a challenge to the High Court, as some have done, which is very expensive. The third claim prisoners can take is where they consider their regime to be incompatible with their human rights. For instance, gangland prisoners who are kept separate from other people and prisoners who are allowed only screen visits might challenge that in the High Court. In such cases, we would have to appoint matching counsel and defend the case. Those are the costs associated with non-compensation. Much of the total is made up by legal costs, but a small part is for compensation awards to prisoners. These are sometimes given for very pragmatic reasons where, say, we get advice that it is not worth defending a challenge at a cost of €100,000 and it would be better to pay €10,000.