Hepatitis C Compensation Payments

Tuesday, 25 February 2014

Questions (632)

Clare Daly

Question:

632. Deputy Clare Daly asked the Minister for Health further to Parliamentary Question No. 689 of 18 February 2014, if he will confirm that the accounting error he specifies in his reply also occurred in the previous year, 2008, and that when his reply refers to a €106,672,203 surplus, it was in fact an accumulation over 2008 and 2009; if he has sought or acquired any additional information with respect to the decision to reformat the online tribunal report in 2010 and 2011; if he will disclose whether his Department was responsible or whether the tribunal made that change; if his attention has been drawn to what recent additions were made to those PDF reports for 2010 and 2011 and if hard copies of the full tribunal annual report for the years 2007-2012 are held in the National Archives; if he will identify what public funds are held in his Department's two relevant special accounts; the total disbursement to date; the way the disbursements are co-ordinated; and how often the Committee of Public Accounts examines his Department's administration of these disbursements. [9714/14]

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Written answers

Minister for Health

The error in the published accounts of the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal for 2009 to which I referred in previous PQ replies did not also occur in 2008, and the documented surplus of €106,672,203 referred to previously was not an accumulation over 2008 and 2009. The Tribunal decided to compile the 2010 Annual Report in-house for reasons of cost. The Tribunal advises that their decision to revert to the original report format for 2012 arose to facilitate the revised process for laying reports before the Houses of the Oireachtas on-line. The recent addition of accounts details for 2010 and 2011 on their website was made by the Tribunal when it came to attention that these details had been omitted. All Annual Reports of the Tribunal are laid before both houses of the Oireachtas and they are available in the Dáil Library.

The Revised Book of Estimates for 2014 includes the following figures pertaining to the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal under Vote 38 Department of Health:

- Subhead F3 - Payment to a Special Account established under Section 10 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Acts 1997 and 2002: €24.786m

- Subhead F4 - Payment to a Reparation Fund established under Section 11 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Acts 1997 and 2002: €3.849m

Details of disbursements from the Department of Health Vote to the two Special Accounts established under Sections 10 and 11 of the Acts are set out in the following table. The accounts of the Department of Health are audited on an annual basis by the Comptroller & Auditor General.

Year	Paid from Health Vote to the Special Account established under Section 10 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act, 1997, as amended.	Paid from Health Vote to the Special Account established under Section 11 of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal Act, 1997, as amended.	Total
-	€	€	€
1995	76,184,284.71	0.00	76,184,284.71
1996	0.00	0.00	0.00
1997	34,282,928.12	19,046,071.18	53,328,999.30
1998	113,006,688.98	19,046,071.18	132,052,760.16
1999	59,677,689.69	11,427,642.71	71,105,332.40
2000	47,615,177.94	6,983,559.43	54,598,737.37
2001	49,519,785.06	7,618,428.47	57,138,213.53
2002	44,286,000.00	6,349,000.00	50,635,000.00
2003	46,651,000.00	8,349,000.00	55,000,000.00
2004	53,000,000.00	8,500,000.00	61,500,000.00
2005	63,500,000.00	8,500,000.00	72,000,000.00
2006	64,286,000.00	11,349,000.00	75,635,000.00
2007	54,900,000.00	9,000,000.00	63,900,000.00
2008	64,286,000.00	11,349,000.00	75,635,000.00
2009	49,000,000.00	5,200,000.00	54,200,000.00
2010	42,000,000.00	6,400,000.00	48,400,000.00
2011	28,600,000.00	3,600,000.00	32,200,000.00
2012	25,300,000.00	3,250,000.00	28,550,000.00
2013	21,200,000.00	3,000,000.00	24,200,000.00
Total to end 2013	937,295,554.50	148,967,772.97	1,086,263,327.47
Amount voted for 2014	24,786,000.00	3,849,000.00	28,635,000.00