A total of 10,029 claims for alleged hearing loss in the course of duty have been initiated by Defence Forces personnel against the State up to last Wednesday. Claims are now coming in at a rate of 100 per week - and there is no sign of a drop-off.
A total of 1,003 cases have been settled out of court up to this week at a cost of £25 million. Court awards have totalled £593,000 with plaintiff costs of £4.56 million, while 36 cases were successfully defended or withdrawn, the Committee of Public Accounts was told. The minimum estimated State bill was £350 million, but this was now considered far too low given the rate of claim.
The worst case scenario was claims from about 50,000 regular soldiers, and up to 100,000 by FCA reserve force personnel - either serving or retired - a total cost of about £2 billion. For 1998 alone, the State expects to settle up to 5,000 cases at a cost £80 million.
Of current claims, 3,077 are from serving members of the Defence Forces; of which 2,843 are from permanent defence forces (PDF), 232 from the FCA and two from the Slua Muiri. There is a total of 5,952 claims from retired personnel, of which 5,430 are PDF; 509 FCA and 13 Slua Muiri.
The committee was told the first claims were lodged in 1992 (total 49) and the cases had quadrupled every year since. Prior to 1991, such a case had to be brought within three years of alleged damage occurring, but a "loophole" arose under the Statute of Limitations enacted that year, which allowed claims arising from as far back as the 1950s.
