Joe Costello (Dublin Central, Labour)
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Question 78: To ask the Minister for Defence the number of claims which have been received to date in 2005 under the Army deafness compensation scheme; the number of claims processed and settled; the amount of money paid out in such settlements to date in 2005; the number of claims outstanding; when he expects the scheme to be complete; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [38161/05]

Tom Kitt (Dublin South, Fianna Fail)
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Up to 31 October last, 18 hearing loss claims were received in the calendar year 2005. In the same period 109 cases were finalised. Of these, 63 were disposed of by way of out of court settlements and one was a court award. The amount of the award and settlements totalled €346,996. In the remainder of the cases, the plaintiffs either withdrew or did not proceed with the case or the claims were dismissed by the courts.

The National Treasury Management Agency (Delegation of Claim Management Functions) Order 2005 which, among other matters, delegates the management of all hearing loss claims to the State Claims Agency, came into operation on 1 September 2005. All new and outstanding hearing loss claims have now been transferred to the agency. Of the 109 cases settled to end of October 2005, four were settled by the State Claims Agency. A total of 1,203 hearing loss claims remain to be settled by the State Claims Agency.