State Claims Agency

Thursday, 14 July 2022

Questions (641, 642, 643)

Catherine Murphy

Question:

641. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the amount that the State Claims Agency has paid out in compensation in mass action, lack of in cell sanitation claims in 2021, 2020 and for the first six months of 2022; and the number of claims the payments concern in 2021, 2020 and for the first six months of 2022, in tabular form. [39456/22]

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Catherine Murphy

Question:

642. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the amount paid out in third-party legal costs concerning lack of sanitation claim cases in 2020, 2021 and for the first six months of 2022; the number of cases that the third party costs relate to; and the amount that each of the top five named legal firms received in 2021, in tabular form. [39457/22]

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Catherine Murphy

Question:

643. Deputy Catherine Murphy asked the Minister for Justice the amount paid out in first party legal costs concerning lack of sanitation claim cases in 2020, 2021 and for the first six months of 2022; the number of cases that the first party costs relate to; and the amount that each of the top five named legal firms received in 2021 in tabular form. [39458/22]

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Written answers

Minister for Justice (Deputy Helen McEntee)

I propose to take Questions Nos. 641, 642 and 643 together.

I have sought the information requested by the Deputy from the Irish Prison Service; however, the information was not available in time. I will write to the Deputy once the information is to hand.End of

The following deferred reply was received under Standing Order 51.

I refer to your Parliamentary Question Numbers 641 to 643 for written answer on 14th July 2022 requesting “the amount that the State Claims Agency has paid out in compensation in mass action, lack of in cell sanitation claims in 2021, 2020 and for the first six months of 2022; and the number of claims the payments concern in 2021, 2020 and for the first six months of 2022;

the amount paid out in third-party legal costs concerning lack of sanitation claim cases in 2020, 2021 and for the first six months of 2022; the number of cases that the third party costs relate to; and the amount that each of the top five named legal firms received in 2021;

and

the amount paid out in first party legal costs concerning lack of sanitation claim cases in 2020, 2021 and for the first six months of 2022; the number of cases that the first party costs relate to; and the amount that each of the top five named legal firms received in 2021 .

As you will recall, the information you requested was not readily available at that time and Minister McEntee undertook to respond to you as soon as possible with the relevant information. A response to these questions is now provided below.

I wish to inform the Deputy that the State Claims Agency manages claims on behalf of the Irish Prison Service in relation to “lack of in-cell sanitation” claims and this information has been collated and provided to the Irish Prison Service by the State Claims Agency

The State Claims Agency has advised the information provided was extracted from the National Incident Management System (NIMS) and that the following should be noted:

• Plaintiff legal costs relate to the payment made to the Plaintiff’s legal team i.e. Solicitors and Counsel and are also inclusive of expert fees which are discharged by the Plaintiff’s solicitor. These expert fees may relate to actuarial, engineering, medical, witness fees etc.

• Agency Legal costs can relate to fees to solicitors or barristers engaged by the Agency.

• The legal costs sums include VAT.

Table 1: Number of Claims and Damages Paid for In Cell Sanitation Claims 2020 – 2022 YTD as of 30/06/2022.

Year	Number of Claims	Damages Paid
2020	386	€1,438,086
2021	732	€2,316,242
2022 YTD (to end June)	62	€189,800
Grand Total	1,180	€3,944,128

Table 2: Number of Claims and Legal Costs Paid for In Cell Sanitation Claims 2020 – 2022 YTD as of 30/06/2022.

Year	Number of Claims	Plaintiff Legal Costs Paid
2020	385	€708,983
2021	723	€967,975
2022 YTD (to end June)	61	€1,054,490
Grand Total	1,169	€2,731,448

The Plaintiff costs paid in 2022 includes the very substantial payment of the agreed legal costs due to the solicitor firm that represented the Plaintiff in the lead lack of in-cell sanitation facilities claim.

Table 3: Top five legal firms by amount paid in Plaintiff Legal Costs for In Cell Sanitation Claims in 2021 as of 30/06/2022.

Payee	Plaintiff Legal Costs Paid
Burns Nowlan Solicitors	€184,450
KOD Lyons Solicitors	€154,350
Michael J Staines & Company	€97,250
M.E. Hanahoe Solicitors	€87,450
Cahir O'Higgins & Company Solicitors	€48,000

Table 4: Number of Claims and Agency Legal Costs Paid for In Cell Sanitation Claims 2020 – 2022 YTD as of 30/06/2022.

Year	Number of Claims	Agency Legal Costs Paid
2020	232	€331,017
2021	765	€547,122
2022 YTD (to end June)	74	€79,419
Grand Total	1,063*	€957,558

* Some claims can have payments in different years. The total number of claims figures reflects only the unique number of claims with payments in 2020-2022 YTD.

Table 5: All Agency Solicitors engaged by amount paid for In Cell Sanitation Claims in 2021 as of 30/06/2022.

Solicitors Name	Amount Paid
Ronan Daly Jermyn Solicitors	€241,441
Good & Murray Smith	€90,497
McCann Fitzgerald Solicitors	€71,477
Corrigan & Corrigan	€48,565

I trust this is of assistance.