The Government is to set up a special tribunal to deal with the thousands of claims of hearing disability from soldiers which are threatening to cost the State hundreds of millions of pounds.
The Minister for Defence, Mr Smith, said last night he will be bringing proposals to Cabinet shortly for the establishment of a hearing tribunal.
He hoped it would be able to deal with many of the 14,000 hearing compensation claims which are before the courts.
Application to the tribunal, which is to be set up by the summer, is voluntary and soldiers retain the right to apply for compensation through the courts.
But the Minister pointed out yesterday that it was anticipated that the tribunal could deal with the 14,000 cases within three years. At the current rate at which hearing cases are passing through the courts it could take 17 years before the recently lodged cases are heard.
So far the State has paid £50.9 million in compensation to soldiers, many of whom have very minor hearing disabilities. A further £14.1 million has been paid in costs to lawyers and expert witnesses.
In his announcement last night, Mr Smith said the objective of the scheme would be to provide compensation for those with genuine disabilities measured in accordance with the Green Book system, the name given to the set of guidelines drawn up by an expert panel last year to measure hearing disability.
Mr Smith said that the tribunal would pay no compensation to anyone with "zero" hearing loss. This was a clear reference to the decision of the High Court to make awards to serving or former soldiers who were found to have no hearing disability, including one case where a soldier with no hearing disability was paid £40,000.
The payment of such sums for no apparent disability raised the prospect of State liability running to hundreds of millions of pounds. Last year a total sum of £2 billion was described as a possibility.
Under the tribunal, Mr Smith said, "those with minor disabilities should receive payments that reflect the minor nature of their disabilities and those with grave disabilities should receive compensation which fairly reflects the seriousness of their injury".
The identities of military personnel who opt to go before the tribunal would be kept secret while all cases before the courts are liable to public reporting.
The Chief of Staff, Lt Gen Dave Stapleton, welcomed the decision, saying: "Any initiative that allowed the Defence Forces to return to its core business of soldiering and serving the Irish public is to be warmly welcomed."
Lt Gen Stapleton said it was always the Defence Forces' view that the issue of hearing disabilities should be dealt with outside the courts. He would encourage both serving and retired members of the Defence Forces currently engaged in litigation to "look carefully at the Minister's offer".
Although there is no indication of the likely level of payments which might emerge, it is known that the Minister initially wished to base payments on the lower scale of the payments made by the High Court.
In one test case taken by the Department of Defence last year the High Court awarded £3,000 to Pte James Green who was found to have 2 per cent hearing loss.
It is understood the Minister's proposal would be based on this award so that soldiers could expect £1,500 per percentage point of hearing loss.
Mr Smith had intended to set up the tribunal last year but another case, taken by Pte Kevin Hanley, led to a payment of £50,575 for a hearing disability put at 9 per cent.