Ms Caron McCaffrey:

The vast majority of our claims are managed by the State Claims Agency, which is the delegated authority in respect of the majority of our claims, including personal injury claims. They are managed by the State Claims Agency on behalf of the State, as are our slopping-out cases. The increase in respect of the legal costs to which the Deputy referred actually concerns the slopping-out cases at the moment. More than 1,600 proceedings have been lodged in court by former prisoners in respect of the fact that they did not have in-cell sanitation during their period of detention. In 2017, €351,000 of the €1 million related to legal costs incurred by the State Claims Agency in defending those cases.