I propose to take Questions Nos. 121 and 198 together.
By 20 September 2000 a total of 15,254 claims for alleged hearing loss had been lodged. Some 6,566 claims had been disposed of, leaving 8,688 still outstanding. A total of £125.22 million has been paid in damages, including plaintiffs legal costs of £36.18 million. The average settlement in these claims has been successfully reduced from over £30,000 per claim during the period 1994-96 to a current average of less than £7,500 per claim. Following the judgment of the Supreme Court in the Hanley case, I estimated that the Army hearing loss claims might be resolved for a total cost of the order of £200 to £300 million. The progress made in my Department in seeking to establish the most suitable method of resolving the outstanding claims continues to support this estimate.
In this regard, I am now keen to ensure that the outstanding claims are disposed of using the speediest mechanism available to us. Deputies will be aware that the majority of personal injury claims are settled by negotiations between the parties to the litigation and very few claims proceed to court. In this way, legal costs are kept to a minimum. The judgment in the Hanley case has laid down a scale which can apply to the majority of outstanding hearing loss claims and there is no longer a requirement to proceed to the steps of the courts with these claims.
After the Hanley judgment, with the support of the Law Society of Ireland, I moved to establish a series of direct negotiations between State officials and the leading solicitor's representing plaintiffs. Good progress was made with these negotiations which continued throughout the summer holiday period.
To date, over 750 claims have been settled by way of a pilot settlement scheme established under the negotiations. The levels of compensation being paid in the claims which settled in this way is the same as that which was being paid in the courts in the period prior to the establishment of the scheme. Significantly, the scheme has also successfully reduced the levels of legal costs by an average of 50% per claim.