Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

This came up with the State Claims Agency. Interestingly, it said that it had just recently taken on dealing with section 38 bodies and major hospitals which are voluntary organisations. The agency is now handling all of their claims. We asked why the agency did not take on the insurance for local authorities. I still feel that there is unnecessary duplication when the agency is handling all of the insurance claims for most Departments but there is a separate parallel insurance scheme for the ETBs and the city and council councils in respect of claims by members of the public, their own staffs, or whatever. We are running two separate schemes to deal with the one issue. I was trying to get at whether it made sense to have one State agency dealing with it all. On the face of it, it would appear that it would. That is why we are trying to get information. It would be useful to be able to compare the experience of Irish Public Bodies with that of the State Claims Agency which deals with the HSE and every other Government body. We have not been able to get there yet. I do not know how far we will get on it. We are the first to start pursuing this. That is all I will say at this stage.