Details released as part of the most recent annual report on the activities of the Hepatitis C and HIV Compensation Tribunal (for the calendar year 2023) has revealed that the state has incurred over €193 million in legal costs since the Tribunal was established in December 1995 to compensate persons infected with Hepatitis C or the receipt of contaminated blood transfusions or blood products within the State.
The report also notes while there was a total of 5048 registered claims from the time the Tribunal was established to December 2023 (36 of which were new claims submitted in 2023), awards of payments have only been made in respect of 3810 of these claims.
These payments have amounted to €791 million to date.
It further notes that 555 claims have been withdrawn to the end of 2023 and approximately 442 cases have been adjourned.
There were 43 awards made by the Tribunal in 2023. The total amount awarded that year was €12,289,549 with the average payment being €285,803.
While the Tribunal was established in December 1995 initially to compensate persons infected with Hepatitis C, the remit of the Tribunal was extended in October 2002 following introduction of the Hepatitis C Compensation Tribunal (Amendment) Act, 2002 enabling it to award compensation to certain persons who contracted HIV within the State from certain blood products.
The 2002 Act also introduced additional heads of claim for the relatives of infected persons including loss of consortium, dependency losses, loss of society, post-traumatic stress and care claims.