Enda Kenny (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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Question 563: To ask the Minister for Education and Science the accumulated cost of court cases taken by his Department in the past five years; the cost of each individual case; the nature of each case; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [27177/09]

Batt O'Keeffe (Cork North West, Fianna Fail)
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The Department of Education & Science has been an applicant or plaintiff in four cases during the period in question. In two of these cases the Department was a co-applicant with other Government Departments and other public bodies whilst in the two remaining cases the Department was the sole Applicant or Plaintiff. Legal costs incurred by the State, in prosecuting those cases which are brought to court, are not met directly by my Department. In accordance with financial procedures in cases taken by the State, legal costs are generally charged to the Chief State Solicitor's Office Vote as sanctioned by the Attorney General. The Department does not take lightly any decision to take a case against another party. However, there are a range of potential circumstances within which this may be necessary, e.g. for overpayments or misappropriation of monies, or to require compliance with a particular set of statutory or contractual obligations or arrangements. Given the small number of cases involved, an elaboration on the range of circumstances that gave rise to the litigation could lead to the identification of the individual Defendants or Respondents, which would be inappropriate given that some of these cases are still before the Courts.