Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Thursday, 7 October 2021

Public Accounts Committee

2020 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapters 15 and 16
2019 Annual Report of the Comptroller and Auditor General - Chapter 16
National Treasury Management Agency - Financial Statements 2020

9:30 am

Mr. Ciarán Breen:

As I said in response to a previous speaker, there are a number of reasons for that increase. One reason is that the volume of claims has increased as we had new delegations. One feature of the State Claims Agency that is probably not the case with a general insurer is mass actions. We have a number of mass actions and, in fact, 30% of the entire non-clinical portfolio is based on mass actions. Those mass actions increase the volume of claims and, as I said earlier, there is an inflationary effect of the decrease in the real rate of return - the personal injury discount rate - on the damages. I agree it is challenging and this challenge will increase. We know that from what our actuaries, who look at the schemes, are telling us. We are doing everything we can to defray that and it is one of the great challenges facing us.