Mr. Ciarán Breen:

We do it within the State Claims Agency. We manage these cases on behalf of the HSE. We do this quite independently of it.

In the clinical indemnity scheme, when we get a case and we understand what it entails, we immediately set contingent liability against it. This is based on our knowledge of what that particular case involves, whether there are issues regarding liability, for example, and what we think is the most likely outcome in the case. Sometimes in any individual case, it can be an incremental process. In other words, as we gather more information and we get more expert reports, it then might become clearer to us as to what the injuries and losses are. One problem we sometimes face is that when we are well developed in a case, on the day before trial we might be furnished with a schedule of special damages in respect of something we did not anticipate. That can happen from time to time.

Going back to our earlier discussion, to which the Comptroller and Auditor General referred, we always have prudent margins in our reserve setting in order to meet contingencies as best we can.