Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 22 April 2026
77. Deputy Emer Currie asked the Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment to provide details of the number of legal actions against his Department that have been resolved without going to court in line with the 2023 State Litigation Principles; if his Department is fully applying the State Litigation Principles in seeking to resolve any current or outstanding legal actions; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [28833/26]
View answerThe State Litigation Principles were adopted by the Government on 30 May 2023. The objective of these Principles is to "promote the concept of the State as a 'Model Litigant'" by ensuring that the Office of the Attorney General and the Chief State's Solicitors Office work effectively with government departments in order to ensure best practice in litigation.
The CSSO has developed a protocol which enumerates the practices comprising model litigant behaviour and my Department adheres to this protocol. This protocol serves as a guideline in order to assist officials in maintaining high standards of ethics and integrity in the conduct of litigation and to ensure that the public interest is always at the heart of all litigation taken against the State.
Litigation is dealt with on behalf of the Department by the Attorney General’s Office, the Chief State Solicitor’s Office or the State Claims Agency who engage lawyers to act for my Department where necessary. Legal cases may be resolved in a variety of ways. Proceedings may be contested, and partly won or partly lost. They may be entirely settled and subject to confidentiality provisions including as to the fact of the settlement. The proceedings may be withdrawn by the applicant before the case runs on their own volition or on foot of an agreement.
The number and nature of possible resolution of proceedings, make it difficult to provide entirely reliable data having regard to the different ways a case can be resolved before going to court. I do intend to provide the number of such resolved cases, however it has not been possible in the time allowed to collate this data and I will revert to the Deputy at the earliest opportunity.
