The legal team representing the Minister for Defence is to seek an adjournment of all Army compensation cases due before the High Court pending the outcome of a report recommending a standard scientific measurement of hearing loss.
The Dail Committee of Public Accounts was told by Department of Defence Secretary, Mr David O'Callaghan, that the Minister had asked his legal team to seek an adjournment of all these cases and the application is due to be argued in the High Court tomorrow.
The adjournment of the cases is being sought until a Department of Health report, referred to as the Green Book, is published. Its aim is to put forward a system for obtaining a scientific assessment and measurement of hearing loss.
Earlier, the Secretary of the Department of Health, Mr Gerry O'Dwyer, said the report should be ready at the end of February.
The Department of Health had been asked to establish a committee and its brief was to produce a scientific document which would give guidelines on determining hearing loss and relating it to handicap. It would also draw up standards for hearing tests. One of the catalysts for the establishment of the committee was the escalation of the number of Army deafness cases.
The committee consists of eight medical people and a Department of Health official.
"We are now targeting to complete the work by the end of February," Mr O'Dwyer added.
The Dail Committee, on the second day of its inquiry into the costs of the Army deafness cases, heard submissions from the Department of Justice and organisations dealing with the legal aspects.
The director general of the Law Society, Mr Ken Murphy, in his submission, said legal costs increased substantially when the defendant insisted on defending the cases to the "door of the court" or into court before conceding liability.
"The Minister for Defence has issued instructions that all cases, regardless of their merits, are to be defended in this manner. His `strategy' has resulted in a substantial increase in the level of costs which fall for payment in cases which are ultimately settled," Mr Murphy claimed.
Mr O'Callaghan said there was no doubt that the strategy being employed was working. It has saved the taxpayer millions. Last year the average award was £35,000, now it is down to £20,000. If they had accepted liability in these cases at an earlier stage they would have been "pegged" at that quantum.
The strategy, based on advice from the offices of the Attorney General and the Chief State Solicitor, was to fight cases to save money.
Mr James Hamilton, senior legal assistant in the Attorney General's Office, said there was a separate section within the CSSO dealing with the Army cases. It now has 32 staff, 14 of whom were solicitors hired on one-year contracts. The rest were full-time civil servants. Last year the total salaries amounted to £530,000.
There was a panel of 71 barristers who would have a maximum of 50 cases each. They were accepting a 20 per cent lower rate of costs than the usual personal injury cases.
Mr O'Callaghan said there were 150 cases per week and there was no evidence that the numbers were tapering off, the graph was still going up.
He said the Department was looking for an extra 20 staff to deal with the cases. That request was being considered by the Department of Finance. The cost of the existing 24 staff working on the cases at present was £400,000 last year.
The Secretary of the Department of Justice, Mr Tim Dalton, said that a personal injuries tribunal where liability was not contested was one of the issues being looked at.
He said he also believed some amendment in the law relating to the advertising of personal injury by solicitors was likely.