The Army hearing claims should be taken out of the courts and be dealt with by a compensation board, the Army Chief-of-Staff, Lieut Gen Gerard McMahon suggested yesterday. He urged that this move be made quickly so that the Defence Forces could repair damage to morale and image.
Making a submission to the Dail Committee of Public Accounts, - the first time the Chief-of-Staff had appeared in front of a Dail committee - he said he was very concerned about the devastating effects the public debate was having on the morale of the Defence Forces. He admitted that even he felt "a bit shamefaced in public".
"As Chief-of-Staff it is not my intention that a person with an injury be deprived of compensation," he said. But he was concerned at some of the "spurious and opportunist claims" and those that were making them without any thought for the services.
"As an organisation we were aware from the early 1950s that in certain circumstances exposure to gunfire could cause hearing disability," he told the committee.
In 1952 advice was given that soldiers should use cotton wool. In the 1960s they were advised to use cotton wool and Vaseline. Since 1972 the Army had purchased a half-million protective plugs and muffs. There was a policy of advice and availability but protection had been left up to the individual.
It was not until 1985 that officers were required to order and check ear protection. In 1993 full enforcement was introduced.
Lieut Gen McMahon said there was no agreed standard of measuring hearing loss as there was in the UK and the US. The absence of an agreed measurement precluded a distinction between hearing impairment and hearing disability.
"It is unfair to the courts to ask them to adjudicate," he said.
He said he was behind those personnel, both retired and serving, who had been damaged, and they had a perfect right to claim. "However, the lack of a recognised standard equates hearing impairment to disability, and this creates a large window of opportunity," he said. "I am upset that the compensation culture has taken root in some of our personnel."
Referring to a solution, Lieut Gen McMahon said: "I feel we must establish an accepted standard of measurement. We should take the issue out of the courts, and it should be dealt with by a compensation board.".
The director of the Medical Corps, Col Maurice Collins, said that until 1989-90, hearing was checked by whisper tests. After that more sophisticated tests were introduced. The failure rate for hearing in potential recruits was 8 per cent over the last two years.
Mr Jim Mitchell, chairman of the committee, asked if that 8 per cent would have got into the Army, before the new test procedures.
Col Collins replied: "There is no doubt of that. The standard is much more exacting now."