Government Departments and other State agencies, whose claims are delegated for management by the State Claims Agency (SCA), do not have conventional insurance cover. Instead, these State bodies operate under State indemnity, a self-insurance model whereby the State bears the financial risk associated with the costs of claims.
This approach to insurance is set out in the Public Financial Procedures (Department of Finance, 2008, C8, Section 11): ‘the general rule is that no insurance should be effected against the risk of any loss which, if it arose would fall wholly and directly on public funds. This is based on the understanding that the risks for which the Government is liable are innumerable and widely distributed, and that losses maturing in any one year are never so large as to materially disturb the financial position of the year, so that it is less expensive in the long term for the Exchequer to ‘carry its own insurance.’
State indemnity, as operated by the SCA, is provided to delegated State authorities, including Government Departments and delegated healthcare enterprises, in respect of personal injury, third-party property damage and clinical negligence liabilities. The Child and Family Agency, the Adoption Authority of Ireland, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children and the Oberstown Children Detention Centre are all delegated State Authorities for this purpose.
With regard to outstanding claims and their estimated costs, my Department and all of the bodies under its aegis, the Child and Family Agency, the Adoption Authority of Ireland, the Office of the Ombudsman for Children and Oberstown Children Detention Centre, will revert to the Deputy directly.
