State agencies fail to learn from compo culture mistakes as payouts treble to €350m
A surge in injury claims paid by taxpayers is being blamed on State agencies failing to learn from mistakes and tackling the causes of costly cases.
Amounts paid out by the State Claims Agency (SCA) have almost trebled since 2014, hitting nearly €350m last year.
This comes amid concern about compensation claims overall hiking up insurance costs.
Figures supplied to the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) detail the State agencies facing the biggest bills for injury and general claims. They include the HSE, the Irish Prison Service, the Defence Forces, Tusla, and gardaí.
Committee chairman Sean Fleming told the : “There is a lack of learning when catastrophic injuries occur, particularly in the health services.
The claims agency also just send the cheque out and we need more intense involvement of the HSE, as they only become concerned when the bill comes back.
Across the various agencies, the State faced claims amounting to over €3.1bn for injury and negligence last year. This is a jump from the €1.46bn in outstanding claims the SCA faced in 2014, according to its accounts.
Officials say some of the increase was down to an extension of the SCA’s remit and higher payouts for an individual’s care after clinical case rulings.
Amounts actually paid out have grown consistently year on year, from €128m four years ago to some €347m last year.
This hike prompted the PAC to include the agency in its next periodic report.
Mr Fleming contends that during its hearings, the SCA acknowledged that certain medical consultants were involved in several claims; the HSE did not know this.
“There’s no responsibility with this,” he said. “Even when a family makes a claim [in a clinical case], they are told to drop the name of the individual consultant or hospital it is against and to file it in general against the HSE.”
The SCA has also released a breakdown of general claims (non-clinical cases) facing State agencies.
Of the total €820m outstanding in claims, the HSE tops the list with €409m, followed by the Irish Prison Service (€133m), the Defence Forces (€61m), Tusla (€50m), and An Garda Síochána (€39m).
Other agencies facing claims for millions of euro include the Office of Public Works, day schools, the Departments of Education, Transport, and Justice, the Courts Service, and child detention schools.
A spokesman for the SCA told the that the types of general claims include slips, trips, and falls, property damage, crashes/collisions, and exposure to psychological and physical hazards.
They also include mass action claims such as a lack of in-cell sanitation in prisons and Lariam compensation cases in the army.
The spokesman added: “The risk universe covered by the general indemnity service also includes public services that, by their nature, constitute higher risk activities — such as Defence Forces personnel on operations overseas, members of An Garda Síochána on operational duty, customs inspections, emergency response services, and custody of prisoners.”
Mr Fleming, said there is too strong a demarcation between the agencies and the SCA.
You need more intense involvement from the HSE. And there needs to be action taken to prevent these claims from happening
Concern about the billions in euro in claims facing agencies comes as the Government struggles to reduce insurance costs crippling businesses and consumers.
Legislation for a new judicial council was passed before the Dáil recess. It will oversee the compiling of guidelines for personal injury claim levels for courts.
The Government has promised this will ultimately help drive down insurance costs for consumers and businesses as insurers will face less costly bills.
