Poor communications between various State bodies led to an award of £796,654 against the State, almost £500,000 more than the plaintiff had sought, the Oireachtas Public Accounts Committee was told yesterday.
The committee was discussing the Comptroller and Auditor General's Report on the Department of Justice.
The case concerned a claim for damages from a prison officer who had had an accident at work. At the opening of the trial, the plaintiff made an offer to settle for £300,000. The State contested the case and lost, and the court awarded almost £800,000, later reduced to £550,000.
Ms Finola Flanagan, director general of the Attorney General's office, said there was lack of co-ordination between her office, the State Solicitor in Clare, the Chief State Solicitor's Office, and the Department of Justice. However, this incident was isolated. Mr Sean Aylward, director general of the new Prison Service, and at the time a principal officer in the Department of Justice, said this was a highly unusual claim. The plaintiff claimed he sustained one injury falling forward and another falling backwards.
He said he had undertaken a review of all the claims against the prison service, and the management of these cases would be taken over by a principal officer.
The figures for cases over the past three years were as follows: in 1997, 48 cases were settled, 11 went against this section of the Department and 24 were dismissed; in 1998, 37 were settled, eight were lost in court and seven dismissed. The provisional figures for 1999 were 16 settled, eight lost and eight dismissed.
The chairman of the committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, asked the Department of Finance to come back within three months with similar figures for all cases taken against various agencies of the State, including local authorities, health boards and commercial semi-state companies.