Ireland
Army deafness claims cost to reach ¤300m
Tuesday, 12 October 2004 17:24The Minister for Defence, Willie O'Dea, has said the final cost to the State of army deafness claims should be just under ¤300 million.
Mr O'Dea said that, on average, there is still one claim being made every week. This is down from 11 a week in 2002 and four a week last year.
To date, 16,726 claims have been made, 333 of which went to court, with 15,060 settled out of court. There are 1,333 cases still outstanding.
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So far, the Department of Defence has paid out ¤277.3 million, with a further ¤93.3 million in legal fees.
Mr O'Dea said the early settlement scheme meant the cost to the State had been greatly reduced.
