More than 14 per cent of the estimated current expenditure on defence next year is being set aside for potential payments to serving and ex-military personnel claiming compensation for alleged hearing and other disabilities. The defence Estimates provide £70,800,000 for compensation payments.
The last budget included a provision of £85 million for compensation payments, but most of the cases scheduled for the High Court were delayed while the Minister, Mr Smith, sought clarification over the means for determining hearing loss. The amount paid out this year is understood to be around £50 million. The shortfall in payments will be carried forward into next year's expenditure.
A total of 13,600 claims for compensation from serving and retired military personnel are outstanding.
It will take years to hear these cases but, at the current rates of settlement, the Department of Defence could be facing a bill of around £1/2 billion over the next five to eight years.
Funds from the sell-offs of five barracks will go towards paying for the compensation.
The defence Estimates provide just under £20 million for new equipment - double the 1998 provision. The 1999 figure is expected to cover the first instalment in a five-year plan to supply the Defence Forces with 40 armoured personnel carriers.