Mr. Ciar?n Breen:

A formal delegation order delegates claims to us. That is where a Minister and-or other body states that we handle the claims from beginning to end. We do that within our function. However, we do not do it in a vacuum. We consult with the Office of the Attorney General, if required. It is not necessarily required in every case. To specifically answer the question, if we see an evolving mass action where we get, for example, a couple of claims and then, as is the pattern in a mass action, it develops over time and there may be something like 150 or 200 claims or, in the case of in-cell sanitation, a few thousand, we set the legal strategy in the first instance. That strategy always is: is the State is liable? Did it do something wrong? It if did, we get on with paying the cases in the best way we can. One example, as the Deputy is probably aware, was the situation in which certain children were given the H1N1 vaccine and subsequently went on to develop narcolepsy and cataplexy. There were roughly 150 claims. There was a lead case and as a result of the lead case, we put in place a mediation system. None of those cases since then have gone anywhere near the courts. They are all going through a mediation system where we pay compensation. I am happy to tell the Deputy that 82, I think, of those cases have now had compensation paid. That was a particular strategy, if you want to call it that, which was to make the payments in the shortest possible time. If liability is an issue point in the case, there is a different strategy. It may be that we have to go to court and the particular legal point requires adjudication. It varies.