Ms Clare McNamara:

No. The State will neither fund qualified entities that are not already established with the State following their designation, nor will it underwrite the costs for legal challenges. The directive allows for member states to fund costs. However, in Ireland we are limited by what is known as champerty and maintenance rules. Third party funding is very limited or unusual in Ireland. Therefore, the State’s way of overcoming this in terms of support, is we are looking to waive the court fees for the qualified entity. However, the State will not actually fund or underwrite the representative action.