Mr. John McCarthy:

Exactly. Before the State Claims Agency came onto the pitch, this was handled by cost accountants. The State Claims Agency was then established, so costs moved into that space. To date, the agency has managed files with claims amounting to €24.3 million, which were settled for €11.9 million, a saving of just over 50%. Without getting into specifics, I am aware of one settlement in which the settled amount was 70% less than what had been claimed. It is a rigorous claims settlement process.

The bulk of the remaining costs have to do with the settling of claims that are on hand but have not been closed. However, there are still third party cost claims that have not yet been submitted. My understanding is there is no way of bringing down the shutters and compelling people to submit their claims. The tribunal is working on this matter with a view to wrapping the tribunal up towards the end of 2018, but we will have to see how that pans out. The important aspect is to ensure that claims are being settled on the basis of a very rigorous assessment.