Paschal Donohoe (Dublin Central, Fine Gael)
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The main driver of that would be the expenses incurred by the Ombudsman in the delivery of their services. It is very difficult for us to be able to form a very accurate view and predict with total accuracy what its costs are going to be in any given year from a legal perspective. That is because the number of cases the office is involved in varies. The settlement period for cases is difficult to predict as well. While it is possible to predict with some accuracy what our legal costs are going to be, it is difficult to predict what could be the costs of adverse outcomes from legal activity the Ombudsman is involved in.

Two actions are being taken to contain those costs over time. First, the Office of the Ombudsman has delivered and developed its own legal services unit, which provides legal advice on the exercise of statutory functions. Second, the office has moved the negotiation of the amount of opposition costs to the State Claims Agency once an award of costs has been made by the court. As the Deputy knows, the activities of the Ombudsman are entirely separate to my own Department, as they should be. In my answer to the Deputy, I have tried to outline the challenges in predicting the costs and the actions that have been taken to contain those costs over time.