Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

If the section 38 agencies, which get at least €3 billion per annum, believed it was better to come into a scheme with the State Claims Agency on a pay-as-you-go basis, and if the entire budget for the local authority is also in that bracket of €4 million - and one could include capital expenditure of €5 billion or €6 billion - they would be a similar sized group of organisations in terms of turnover. If it is valid for section 38 agencies to come into the State insurance scheme, then somebody should run the numbers to see if it would be valid for local authorities to come in on the same basis. Maybe the claim profile of the local authorities is completely different but it would be interesting to see. There appears to be two agencies handling insurance claims - one for local authorities and one for all the organisations under the State Claims Agency. Can we talk with the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform about this? Somebody needs to look at it. I am not suggesting there should be a change but if it has worked with others, and the State Claims Agency has come to this conclusion regarding section 38 agencies, then the same exercise could be examined for local authorities, given that it is all taxpayers' money and savings could be made.