Drop in payouts for medical negligence cases – a look behind the headlines

There are a few reasons for the drop in total compensation the State Claims Agency paid during 2024, but a decline of over €89.9 million in claims paid, down to €286.9 million from the €376.8 million in compensation payments of 2023, is significant in anyone’s terms.

One of the reasons is the €90 million reduction in medical negligence claims paid, which may be due to a lag in payments from other years and possibly claims settled in 2024 that are not due to be paid until 2025.

There may also have been significant one-off payments in 2023, which are not unusual in Irish medical negligence and personal injury cases. A mass action could have been settled and paid in the one year, which would definitely skew the overall figures.

Interim payments are not unusual in medical negligence claims in Ireland. If a young person is injured due to medical negligence and requires care for life, the compensation may be staged over the years to come when it may be most needed.

Compensation for exposure to harmful chemicals was another area that saw a reduction in compensation payments. Here, the drop was very significant, down to around €5 million from €44.1 million in 2023, possibly due to the settlement of outstanding cases in 2023.

Overall, a drop in compensation payments may be noteworthy but could be only a blip or a sign that the State Claims Agency had a quiet year compared to previous ones.

A few areas did see a rise in compensation payments in 2024. The State Claims Agency deals in every sector of negligence compensation, and as usual, the old reliables saw a bump in payouts to those injured.

Slips, trips, and falls saw another increase in the year-to-year comparison between 2023 and 2024. The failure to update infrastructure and public areas such as footpaths and other spaces will always see a steady increase in public liability accidents.

The slip when out for a walk, the trip on a torn carpet in a public building, and the fall on slippery stairs cause personal injuries. When injured on state-owned property, you claim against the State Claims Agency, and in 2024, slip, trip and fall claims made against the State rose in value by €4.6 million to €21 million overall, a rise over nearly 25% compared to 2023

Road traffic accidents involving State vehicles such as Garda cars, ambulances and machinery is another area seeing an increase in payments in 2023. The amount here rose from €2.2 million to over €5.5 million, more than double over the course of a year.

One area which is seeing a rise nearly every year at the moment is compensation for the effects of violence, harassment, and abuse in the public sector workspace. As people become more aware of how unacceptable such behaviour is in the workplace, so are the claims for compensation by victims. The overall payment in 2024 was €15.2 million, up by €3.9 million on the 2023 figure.

Similar to the violence, harassment and abuse payments are the ones for psychological hazards such as exposure to death and injury in the workplace and compensation for being accused wrongly. The increase in compensation here was over €3 million to €28.3 million.

A spokesperson for the State Claims Agency made it clear that though they do not comment on individual cases there are often movements due to other factors in how payments and settlements are made.

“The SCA does not comment in individual cases and cannot provide further details in respect of these movements,” the spokesperson said and the high outstanding liability points to the SCA being busy for years to come.

The outstanding liability held by the State Claims Agency is always high, though the amount of €5.18 billion at the end of 2024 is significant. One reason is that it takes time to investigate every claim, and outstanding amounts claimed roll over from year to year.

Another issue is the potential claimants who have not come forward in mass action claims. The SCA has to include their possible claims when calculating the overall liability at the end of every year.

In other cases, the amount of compensation being claimed could be reduced through negotiation and the introduction of phased payments for those in need of immediate financial help.

Outstanding claims do eventually get settled by the State Claims Agency, but the backlog can grow, which is one of the reasons the current amount stands at over €5 billion.