Ivana Bacik (Dublin Bay South, Labour)
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308. To ask the Minister for Finance the number of judicial review cases his Department has defended in each of the past ten years; the number in relation to which proceedings are pending or continuing; the number of cases which were lost and won, respectively, in the same period; the number of cases that settled in the past ten years; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [32841/25]

Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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It is not possible to provide the information requested.

There is an erroneous assumption in some legal circles that the Minister for Finance should be named as a defendant whenever damages or costs are being sought from the State. Damages or costs are sought in almost all judicial review cases. The Chief State Solicitor, under the direction of the Attorney General, has carriage of judicial reviews to which I am named as a party and my officials provide instructions to that office as required and requested.

The Minister for Finance is named as a party on a large number of proceedings which seek damages from the State, without being directly involved in the running of the litigation in circumstances where another Minister may take the leading role in respect of providing instructions on the issue. My Department does not have records of all cases naming the Minister for Finance and does not collate the information sought. In some cases my officials are not even consulted despite the Minister for Finance being named as a party, where another Minister is the lead defendant and provides instructions.