Ten sample Army deafness compensation cases settled for sums between £45,000 and £4,000 would not have met criteria if the applicants were applying for social welfare disability pensions.
A Dail Committee of Public Accounts meeting on the Army cases which heard submissions from a number of bodies including the Army Pensions Board, the Representative Association of Commissioned Officers, PDFORRA, and the Department of Defence, was told that none of the 10 samples would have met the minimum criteria required by the Department of Social Welfare for disability pensions for hearing loss.
Dr Michael Chambers, medical adviser at the Department of Social Welfare, said he had assessed the hearing loss in each of the sample cases and none of them met the minimum criteria. The Army and former Army personnel taking the cases had received settlement sums of £30,000; £4,000; £30,000; £17,000; £25,000; £45,000; £39,000; £16,000; £37,500; and £21,500.
Mr Edward O'Sullivan, Secretary of the Department of Social Welfare, told the committee that occupational deafness was one of the proscribed diseases for an income support scheme. The Army personnel came within the proscribed occupations under the scheme.
There were a very small number of applicants claiming hearing loss. The number of claims averaged four a year out of over 3,000 claims. In 1997 there were three claims relating to hearing loss, and all were disallowed. He said the regulation was that there should be at least a 50-decibel loss in each ear.
The Secretary of the Department of Defence, Mr David O'Callaghan, said there were 11,521 Army deafness compensation claims. The chairman of the committee, Mr Jim Mitchell, said that as he understood it 1,400 of the Army cases had been settled and of the 10 samples none would have qualified for social welfare.