Alan Shatter (Dublin South, Fine Gael)
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Question 924: To ask the Minister for Defence in respect of each of the years 2008, 2009 and 2010 if he will give details of the number of court cases initiated in each year in which he or his predecessor was named as a defendant; the number of such cases in each year initiated in the District Court, Circuit Court or High Court; the nature of the proceedings taken, for example, the number of cases in which damages were claimed; judicial review was sought of decisions made or were constitutional challenges and so on; whether in all such cases legal representation was provided by the Chief State Solicitor's Office and if not, by whom; if he will detail the legal costs incurred by his Department in each of the said years in respect of any such litigation and to provide a breakdown of same including details of fees paid to solicitors and barristers; to detail the number of cases in each of the aforesaid years that were lost and in respect of which he or the State was ordered to pay the plaintiff's costs and the amount of costs so paid in each of the aforesaid years. [1633/11]

Tony Killeen (Clare, Fianna Fail)
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The information requested in relation to cases initiated is set out in the following table:

* Personal injuries and property damage cases

No separate breakdown of cases initiated in each of the District Court, Circuit Court or High Court is currently available and it will take some time and effort to obtain it. If Deputy Shatter still requires this information I will get it for him as quickly as possible.

None of the cases involved were constitutional challenges.

The management and legal representation of all of the above cases was undertaken either by the State Claims Agency or the Chief State Solicitor's Office. The State Claims Agency manages personal injury and property damage claims against the State. The Chief State Solicitor's Office currently manages cases that arise from overseas incidents, policy sensitive cases and administrative law cases such as judicial reviews. Both the State Claims Agency and the Chief State Solicitor's Office brief the relevant barristers.

In cases where the State is considered liable or which involve an apportionment of liability as between the State and the claimant, I am informed that both the State Claims Agency and Chief State Solicitor's Office approach is to settle such cases expeditiously in so far as it is possible and to do so on reasonable terms. In cases where liability is fully disputed by the State, all necessary resources are applied to defending such claims robustly.

My Department reimburses the Chief State Solicitor's Office and State Claims Agency in respect of settled cases where the State paid plaintiffs' legal costs as well as those cases that were lost in court. My Department does not make payments direct to barristers or solicitors in respect of these cases. The amounts quoted in the following table are the total for plaintiffs' legal costs. Some of these cases would have been initiated prior to 2008 but finalised in the period, 2008 to 2010.

The total amount of legal costs incurred by my Department in the period 2008 to 2010 is set out below: