Tá mé anseo thar ceann an Aire Cosanta. It is with feelings of regret that the Minister is again required to make a further statement about the Army deafness litigation.
Following the judgment of the High Court delivered by Mr. Justice Lavan on 3 June 1998 in the case of James Greene v. the Minister for Defence, Ireland and the Attorney General, the Minister said he was pleased that the expert evidence adduced by the State in that case had been accepted by the court and that the Green Book report had been held to be a fair and reasonable basis for assessing hearing disability. He also said that he was now prepared to settle cases which were coming on immediately for hearing in the courts provided plaintiffs were prepared to accept the Green Book assessment system endorsed by the High Court and to accept levels of quantum which were consistent with that judgment. The Minister went on to say that he was very conscious of the considerable burden placed on the courts by these cases and would endeavour to ensure that, where possible, cases would be settled and that ultimately a non-court compensation mechanism would remove them completely from the court system.
In this test case, evidence was presented by a number of ENT experts, Professor Alberti, University of Toronto, Professor Walsh, Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, and Mr. Blaney, ENT specialist, Mater Private Hospital and the Children's Hospital, Temple Street, that the system outlined in the report was well balanced, fair and reasonable and, if anything, favoured the claimant.
The fact is the courts were being presented with varied and conflicting systems of assessment and it was felt that in the public interest a single method should be used in all cases. Even where there is a hearing injury plaintiffs are not suffering from the same degree of hearing disability. In other words, there are different degrees of impairment and a minor injury should receive small compensation.
Therefore, it was with surprise and disappointment that the Minsiter learned of a decision by the High Court to award £30,000 in damages to a former soldier with less than 3 per cent hearing disability. The case involved a 36 year old former soldier who left the Army in 1985 after only six years service. There was no record of a hearing complaint in his Army medical records nor was there any evidence provided of a hearing problem in the intervening 11 years until his claim in March 1996.
Yesterday's judgment contrasts with the previous High Court ruling which awarded a 56 year old claimant with 2 per cent handicap and 35 years service £3,000. While yesterday's judgment is still being studied, a preliminary examination would indicate that if this scale of compensation is applied generally, the total cost of settling the Army deafness cases at present in hand will be of the order of £2 billion.
Yesterday's judgment now places the plans on hold the Minister had to remove the processing of Army deafness cases from the courts through to settlement. The decision will be the subject of an appeal to the Supreme Court. A further major test case now appears necessary.
The Minister wishes to repeat it is not his intention to ask the taxpayer to shoulder the entire burden of the cost of these claims and he will be looking to see what economies can be made in the Defence budget towards the overall cost.
He emphasises it is important to place recent events in perspective. The evidence presented in the Greene case was comprehensive. However, a single test case could not answer every possible question arising in the complex technical area of disability assessment. The question of age-related hearing loss and its relationship with other causes of hearing impairment has now been raised.
The Minister wishes to assure the House that all necessary steps will be taken to present the evidence required by the courts to deal comprehensively with this issue. Yesterday evening and this morning officials of the Department of Defence were in contact with leading world experts. In the very near future, a further major test case will be prepared to ensure all aspects of this important question are rehearsed before the courts.
