Seán Fleming (Laois, Fianna Fail)
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91. To ask the Tánaiste and Minister for Justice and Equality the number of cases with the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal that have not been completed; if he will provide an age analysis of the number of these cases on a year by year basis; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [52636/18]

Charles Flanagan (Laois, Fine Gael)
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Because of the manner in which cases are recorded by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal, in particular cases which are open but not actively pursued by the applicant, it is not possible at this time to provide the Deputy with the number of cases awaiting decision and those which are deemed to be open.I have, however, requested an assessment of the caseload of the Tribunal and have asked my officials to examine this assessment and seek the views of the Criminal Injuries Tribunal in this regard.  I can update the Deputy further when this exercise has been completed.

I can also advise the Deputy that, in view of the length of time since the Scheme was last revised, my Department has submitted a request for a review of the Scheme to the Law Reform Commission (LRC) for consideration in the context of its Programme of Law Reform. 

Furthermore, in view of a number of large awards from the General Scheme in the current year, I can inform the Deputy that I have obtained approval for an increased allocation of €2.4m for 2018, as part of a Supplementary Estimate for the Vote which will bring the total compensation allocation to €6.416m. 

For the Deputy's information, the number of applications received and the amount of compensation paid under both schemes operated by the Criminal Injuries Compensation Tribunal is provided in tabular form below, though I should state that the amount paid out in any given year is not reflective of the applications received in that year, for various reasons, including that compensation payments may relate to applications made in prior years.