Pearse Doherty (Donegal, Sinn Fein)
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148. To ask the Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht the expenses incurred by her Department relating to insurance of all types in each of the past five years; the cost of each insurance policy held by her Department over the same time period per annum; if she will provide the same data for all bodies under the aegis of her Department; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [26280/17]

Heather Humphreys (Cavan-Monaghan, Fine Gael)
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As I recently informed the house in response to Parliamentary Question No 305 of 28 March, my Department and a number of the bodies under its aegis operate under State Indemnity, a self-insurance model whereby the State bears the financial risk associated with the cost of claims. This approach is set out in the Public Financial Procedures at C8 Section 11 whereby 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”.

The National Treasury Management Agency is designated as the State Claims Agency (SCA) when performing the claims and risk management functions delegated to it under the National Treasury Management Agency (Amendment) Act 2000. Since the establishment of the SCA, the management of claims functions has been delegated to the Agency.

The table below provides a summary of insurance costs incurred during the period in question by bodies under the aegis of my Department.

Annual Insurance Costs 2012-2017