Compensation Claims.

Tuesday, 19 January 2010

Questions (518)

Niall Collins

Question:

578 Deputy Niall Collins asked the Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform the number of legal actions for compensation taken against the State and An Garda Síochána, jointly or separately, for each of the years 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009 analysed by case type (details supplied); the amounts of settlements paid to date in each year for the number of cases now concluded; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [1288/10]

View answer

Written answers

Minister for Justice, Equality and Law Reform (Deputy Dermot Ahern)

The number of legal actions for compensation taken against the State arising from the conduct of members of An Garda Síochána broken down by category as requested is set out in the following Table 1.

Table 1: New cases

Category	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009
Assault	46	46	39	39	35
Unlawful Arrest	18	24	29	21	20
Other	45	69	73	89	69
Total	109	139	141	149	124

The information requested by the Deputy on compensation paid in respect of legal actions against members of the Garda Síochána for the period from 2005 to 2008 is available on my Department's website. Provisional figures for 2009 are set out in Table 2.

Table 2: Amounts and number of cases concluded

The number of cases involved is shown in brackets
		Assault	Unlawful Arrest	Other
2009 provisional	Awards	Nil	Nil	€30,610.74(2)
	Settlements	€317,200.00(18)	€390,650.00(11)	€888,693.98(18)
	Costs	€656,881.34(13)	€280,600.24(13)	€2,397,998.80(52)
	Total	€974,081.34	€671,250.00	€3,317,302.70	€4,962,634.00