Mary Lou McDonald (Dublin Central, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I am sure people will have heard very clearly that not alone had the Taoiseach been briefed on and overseen the legal strategy to frustrate those who had been illegally charged in getting their money back but that, in fact, he supports that strategy, and I assume that stands for his colleague, the Minister, Deputy Simon Harris. It needs to be said that neither the Ombudsman or the Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission shared the Taoiseach's confidence in the State's legal position. As a matter of fact, the strategy was to settle before discovery because the State was very concerned it was on the wrong side of the law and, indeed, the State never found what it would term a "suitable case" to go to trial on. For all the Taoiseach's bombast here this afternoon, the State and Governments of which he was a member, indeed he was a serving Minister for Health, never had the confidence to go to trial.

In 2017, there were still 220 claims in the system. Could the Taoiseach tell the House how many claims there are, as of today?

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