The State was likely to pay out £377 million in total compensation to people infected with the hepatitis C virus, the secretary-general of the Department of Health said yesterday.
Mr Jerry O'Dwyer told the Dail Committee of Public Accounts that figures to May 28th put the average award at £143,477, with legal costs per case now running at £22,750.
He said 1,918 people had applied to the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal established by the Government two years ago and 1,013 cases had been settled to date. He was speaking during questions about the operation of the Blood Transfusion Services Board (BTSB) which focused on whether proper safeguards had been put in place since the hepatitis C scandal was revealed.
The committee chairman, Mr Jim Mitchell, said members were "heartened" by the progress being made, but nobody "could ever forget the hurt" caused to thousands of people because of official negligence.
The chief executive of the BTSB, Mr Martin Hynes, said the organisation had made significant changes in the last year and public confidence was being restored. He assured the committee that a hepatitis C scandal could not happen again because of the steps taken.
The main change had been the introduction of new testing methods which were at the forefront of best practice internationally. The BTSB now operated a "haemo-vigilance" system which monitored any unusual reaction to a blood transfusion as soon as it occurred.
However, he acknowledged that ongoing "adverse publicity" about hepatitis C had caused the number of units donated by the public to fall to the current level of 150,000 from about 170,000 in the years before. He said a new office for the BTSB with "state-of-the-art equipment and a new computer system which tracks the blood donation right through to use in the hospital" would vastly increase the service it provided.
Questioning Mr O'Dwyer about spending on the health service, Mr Mitchell said accident and emergency wards in the largest hospitals were at present failing patients badly, with elderly people having to wait for hours on trollies for treatment.
"I readily acknowledge that at particular times there is a problem," said Mr O'Dwyer.
He said the case could be made that "we haven't got the balance right in terms of investment, especially in facilities which would take the pressure off acute hospital beds". He added that more investment would have to be made in alternative facilities, which could relieve the pressure on acute beds.