THE NATIONAL AGENCY that handles compensation claims made against state bodies has over 5,700 outstanding claims and spent €160,000 on surveillance of claimants last year.

The State Claims Agency (SCA) is a body set up under the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) which manages claims to ensure the State’s liability is as low as possible.

The NTMA is designated as the SCA when performing the claims management and risk management functions.

Answering a parliamentary question from Fine Gael TD Michelle Mulherin, Minister for Finance Michael Noonan told the Dáil that the agency spent the figure on investigating suspected fraudulent claims.

“As part of its functions in relation to the management of claims against the State, the SCA has checks carried out, in certain cases, to assist in the identification of any fraudulent claims.

The SCA incurred expenses of €160,000 in relation to these services in 2012.

Noonan then outlined just how much the SCA has in outstanding claims.

At the end of 2012 the SCA had 5,755 active claims under management with an estimated outstanding liability of €1.1 billion.

The report of the Comptroller and Auditor General this week said that €970 million of this figure was clinical personal injury claims, while €160 million was other claims.

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