Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail)
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588. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation the cost of insurance under different insurance headings such as public liability, buildings cover, employer liability and so on for her Department and each body under its aegis; the name of the insurance provider for each year since 2010, in tabular form; the number of current outstanding insurance claims against her Department or the body under its aegis; the estimated cost of those claims if available. [15183/17]

Mary Mitchell O'Connor (Dún Laoghaire, Fine Gael)
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State indemnity for personal injury and third party property damage is set out in the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2000 where the management of personal injury underlying risks, and third party property damage claims against certain State authorities, is delegated to the National Treasury Management Agency.  When performing these functions, the Agency is known as the State Claims Agency (SCA).

The SCA’s remit covers personal injury and third party property damage claims against the State itself, Ministers of the Government and the delegated State Agencies, as applicable.

This function is discharged in relation to bodies delegated to the SCA under National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act, 2000 and subsequent legal orders , but not to all State-funded or associated enterprises.

Public Financial Procedures defines indemnities as: “agreements to compensate bodies or individuals for loss or damage arising” and states that: “The general rule is that no insurance should be effected against the risk of any loss which, if it arose, would fall wholly and directly on public funds.  This is based on the understanding that the risks for which the Government is liable are innumerable and widely distributed and that losses maturing in any one year are never so large as to materially disturb the financial position of the year, so that it is cheaper in the long term for the Exchequer to ‘carry its own insurance’ ”.

In relation to "buildings cover", accommodation for my Department is provided by and under the stewardship of the OPW who manage the State portfolio.  The OPW have has confirmed that it does not pay any monies direct to insurance companies and that in the case of state owned buildings the OPW carry their own risk. In some instances of leased buildings the OPW refunds due portions of premia to landlords. The OPW has advised that it is the landlord in this instance who has the direct relationship with insurance providers.

Similarly, should public, or employer’s, liability or property claims arise from an incident on property occupied by my Department, this is investigated and managed by the SCA in liaison with the delegated State body or Department.

Finally, in relation to outstanding claims against my Department or bodies under its aegis, I have asked the relevant Agencies to respond to me directly and I will write to the Deputy with the relevant  details, in due course.