Month: May 2026

Dáil Public Accounts Committee 14/05/26 – Director of State Claims Agency, Mr Ciarán Breen, misleads the PAC on Air Corps Toxic Chemical Scandal

Watch the Director of the State Claims Agency, Mr Ciarán Breen, give misleading evidence to the Dáil Public Accounts Committee 14/05/26.

Minister for Defence Helen McEntee mislead the Dáil a week previously on the same matter.

Transcript

(3  excerpts from full PAC meeting)

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

Sure. I thank Mr. Breen. I will ask specifically with regard to current and serving and also former Air Corps members. How many outstanding cases are open within the State Claims Agency regarding current or former Air Corps members?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Originally, we had 11 of those claims. We settled one claim. Following that claim, we received 13 more. Therefore, we have 24 cases now.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

Are they at various stages of process? When would the earliest of those 20 have been opened?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

In the case we settled, for example, my recollection is that proceedings were served in 2014 and the case was settled in 2025. The other cases are at different levels of engagement and readiness and so on.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

Would there be others from that 2014 era?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I guess many of them would probably date back to that date and maybe dates after that.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

In Mr. Breen’s expertise, why would a case to be ongoing that long?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

When I answer this, I am not being critical at all of, obviously, when I say this but sometimes a plaintiff is in a very complex action like that because we are dealing with exposure to chemicals and generally an environment that alleges toxicity. Therefore, there are complex issues of liability and causation for both sides. If we add in discovery to that as well, we can see why we would get delays of, certainly, a good number of years. In the particular case that we settled, there were periods of relative inactivity. When I say that, I just mean legally. I am quite sure there was a lot of work being done in the background.

Aidan Farrelly (Kildare North, Social Democrats)

Maybe it is not as simple as asking in whose court the ball lies for those cases, but does Mr. Breen think that would be with the State Claims Agency right now or would it be with the plaintiffs?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

When a plaintiff sues, really, the ball lies largely with the plaintiff, but we do not rely on that. What we try to do, wherever we can, if we acknowledge that the State has a liability, is try to make an approach ourselves and ask, if both sides are ready, whether we can settle this case on terms that are acceptable to both parties.

*****

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

I welcome everybody here today. Following on from Deputy Neville’s questioning on wages and staffing, it seems to be a fantastic place to work when there are so many staff on such high salaries. Would I be correct in saying the salaries the witnesses are paid are much higher than civil servants in most other parts of Government?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

Looking at the data, the NTMA was set up 35 years ago and was designed to be a market-based private sector model to get people in to manage the asset liabilities of the State, so, yes, you would say that.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

Does Mr. O’Connor think that is fair?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

I do, and the reason is other people set up the agency on that basis. When you look at the scale of what is managed in the NTMA, in going to the market, funding that over €200 billion, doing it in a prudent way and managing the assets of the State, you need the talent in the room. When you are talking to asset and fund managers, you need to have people on both sides of the table who know what they are doing.

We have people doing payments – and we failed on this one payment – and we have people doing derivative transactions who need to know which side of the button to press on the FX, which currency we are trading in and all those different aspects. We need to have people of the appropriate skill and experience to do those jobs. The second thing is to get those people who are competing against the banks, law firms and engineering firms, etc., so, yes, I do.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

It sounds like a very good salary to me. In that regard, there were 270 personnel within the company who also received €2.5 million last year in State-related bonuses. Am I correct in saying that is all coming from Government funding?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

Absolutely. Regarding performance-related pay, again, that is another aspect of the pay models and other tools. It is non-pensionable performance-related pay and is common in the marketplace. We are probably a little different in that we publish the amounts and, generally, the average would be about €9,000 or €10,000 to about a third of the staff.

The one thing is we tend to disperse to more staff because all parts – the front and middle office – are important. Rather than pay large amounts to some people who might appear big, as the industry does, because it might incentivise the wrong risk-taking behaviour, we tend to disperse to between 30% and 40% of staff.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

I am interested in the State Claims Agency and the duty of care to those who have been wounded by Government policy, such as thalidomide sufferers, those with hepatitis C and now the Air Corps.

Is it the policy that staff get pay-related bonuses to help ensure that the State Claims Agency fights these cases every single step of the way and to try to break down plaintiffs and get them to withdraw their claims?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

Before I ask Ciarán to comment on the cases and the management of claims, to be very clear, performance-related pay is set on an agency-wide basis. It is not set for one business unit over another. The approach would never be to pay performance-related pay for a specific item to incentivise somebody to do a particular…..

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

What do they get the pay-related bonus for?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

The pay-related bonus depends on the performance of the individual in their overall duties and the performance of their business area in the wider NTMA.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

Is Mr. O’Connor telling me it has nothing to do with claims?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

People in the State Claims Agency are one cohort, who also get…..

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

They are getting pay-related bonuses for ensuring claims do not go through. Is that not the case?

Frank O’Connor (Chief Executive NTMA)

No, not that. It is for the performance of their duty overall to fulfil their mandate. They are not incentivised to do one specific thing over another. They must always do the job to the best of their ability.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

The State Claims Agency failed to spot chemical exposure of Air Corps personnel, even though it did health and safety audits from 2006 until 2026. Am I correct in saying that? It failed to see that, and that there was no adequate PPE.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Maybe I can answer that because I am the director of the State Claims Agency. Our risk management team, comprising scientists, engineers and people qualified in environmental and fire safety, did carry out audits in Baldonnel in 2006 and 2007…..

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

They failed to see, however, that the staff were not wearing PPE.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I ask the Deputy to just bear with me for a minute as I want to explain. The particular area that is the impugned area was called the old engine repair flight workshop. By the time we carried out our audits in Baldonnel, that had been demolished or it was disused. I think it was disused in 2006 and demolished in 2007 so it was never, in fact, inspected by our risk management people. They could not have been aware of any issues with that particular workshop at the time.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

Were there no certificates of compliance from 2006?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I might just explain to the Deputy what we do. Our risk management is to advise and assist State authorities. One of the things that we are most conscious about doing is to ensure that somewhere like the Air Corps, Navy or Army – just looking at them as a group – has in place safety performance management. That is what we do. We do some audits.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

When the team investigated this, however, was there safety performance management in place?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Yes

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

It was in place.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Yes, when we went there in 2006 and 2007, we absolutely made sure that such performance management systems were in place, and they were. By the way, we did carry out spot audits of various parts of Baldonnel. Very often we commented negatively on things that we found.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

Did the team spot at that time that there was a failure to store carcinogenic and highly corrosive chemicals on the property? Did it see that?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

As I said, that flight workshop was gone when we did the audit. Generally, in terms of chemicals management, we have found that the Air Corps is adhering to proper practice.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

How many cases are there? Was it 24?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

We had 11 originally and 13 very recently.

Cathy Bennett (Cavan-Monaghan, Sinn Féin)

I have also been told that 65 Air Corps personnel died due to the health implications of what happened there. Where are those cases?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

We only deal with cases when we have claims in front of us. That is confined to the 24 that we have.

 

*****

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

…..I want to return to the issue of the Air Corps. When was the first case lodged or taken?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

The earliest cases were probably lodged around 2013-2014.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

Again, for the record, why did it take so long for the case to be settled last year in 2025?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

It is obviously difficult for me to talk about any individual case because you will understand that we have to respect the confidentiality of any plaintiff. I can say this to you definitely; during that period of the time, from the time that the summons was originally served, there were delays following that in terms of how the file was progressed, not at our end.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

Were the delays on the other side?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

They were not on our end.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

It was not on the State Claims Agency’s end.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I am not saying that in any critical way, but there were delays until we finally got to settlement.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

Were there any disclosure actions taken against that discovery?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Yes, there were. The discovery was not actually in the case that was settled. The discovery was in respect of the lead case, which actually was not the case that was first settled. The Chair will probably be aware that in that particular case both the High Court and Court of Appeal upheld our discovery applications to limit discovery, and the Supreme Court overturned that finally.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

The State Claims Agency fully complied with that? Was the State Claims Agency found to have been in breach of the Supreme Court?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

There had been a breach by the Air Corps in that it had not made proper discovery. It was ordered to make proper discovery, which it ultimately did.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

This ultimately prolonged the case…..

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Yes, that did prolong it.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

…..so Mr. Breen’s prior statement that the delays were on the plaintiff’s side…..

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Sorry, I was not impugning the plaintiff at all. I said that there were delays there…..

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

There were delays.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

…..and I agree with you that one of them was the breach in relation to the discovery. That did delay it.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

In relation to Baldonnel, I think the State Claims Agency portrayed the issue as solely down to the engine room. Is that where predominantly the chemical exposures took place? Am I right?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Certainly based on the claims as pleaded, the references are to the exposure over a period of time relative to that particular locus.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

When was the engine room demolished?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I think it was in 2007.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

Mr. Breen said it was in 2006 earlier on.

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

No. I said that I think it was disused in 2006 and ultimately demolished in 2007.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

Was the engine room still in use up to September 2007?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I am not sure. I honestly cannot tell you emphatically, but certainly what I recollect is that it had been taken out of use and then was finally demolished in 2007.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

I have an image in front of me from Google Maps from 2009 that clearly shows the engine room still fully intact. The image is dated May 2009. Is Mr. Breen correct with the information he gave that it was demolished in that timeframe?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

Sorry, I obviously was not there. I do not know when it was exactly. What I was told was that it was demolished in 2007.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

The evidence I have is that it was still fully intact in 2009. If the engine room was still in use up until September 2007, and this is the information I have, when did inspections of the engine room commence?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

We did not ever inspect that engine room on the State Claims Agency side, precisely for the reason that it was not actually in use.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

When did the avionic building on the right-hand side of the engine room cease being used?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I do not know. I do not have that information.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

That ceased being used as a classroom in 2008-2009 and that was used by the Air Corps College. It has been reported that 14 persons prematurely died from that building. The information I have is that while there is an attempt to portray it solely as an issue around the engine room, 102 people are reported to have prematurely died as a result of chemical exposure and other serious failures throughout the rest of the airbase. Would…..

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

I have just seen those stories in the media but I cannot comment on that. I do not know any causal link between those deaths and Baldonnel as an employer.

John Brady (Wicklow, Sinn Féin)

There are serious concerns that chemical exposure was rampant throughout Baldonnel. In Mr. Breen’s view, is that something that has been established?

Ciarán Breen (Director State Claims Agency)

In relation to the work that we carried out, and you can imagine that Baldonnel is a very big campus and it has many different parts to it, our audits were carried out in different parts of Baldonnel. Certainly in relation to our examination, the management of chemical hazards was in accordance with best standards in terms of all of the safety performance management paperwork we saw.

*****

A full transcript of the complete Public Accounts Committee meeting on Thursday the 14th of May 2026 can be viewed below.

https://www.oireachtas.ie/en/debates/debate/committee_of_public_accounts/2026-05-14/3/

*****

In this startling exchange before the Dáil Public Accounts Committee (PAC) on May 14, 2026, the Director of the State Claims Agency (SCA), Ciarán Breen, provides demonstrably misleading testimony regarding the Irish Air Corps toxic chemical exposure scandal.

During the hearing, Mr. Breen attempts to excuse the SCA’s negligent Health and Safety audits of Casement Aerodrome, which incredibly awarded the Defence Forces “best practice” compliance certificates in early 2007 while personnel were actively being poisoned without PPE. To defend these catastrophic oversight failures, Breen claims that the old Engine Repair Flight (ERF) workshop was “disused in 2006 and demolished in 2007,” and therefore was never inspected by his risk management team.

This is factually false. As highlighted by Deputy John Brady, the Engine Shop remained in use up to September 2007. Furthermore, it was not demolished in 2007; the building is clearly visible and fully intact in Google satellite images dating to May 2009. Official tender documents for the “Demolition of Old Engineering Workshops” at Casement Aerodrome prove that the tendering process only closed on July 15, 2009. Adding to the severity of this oversight, the right-hand side of the Engine Shop, the Avionics building, was actively used as a classroom by the Air Corps College throughout 2008 and 2009.

Breen’s testimony also reveals a calculated strategy by the State to geographically contain the scandal. He attempts to concentrate the chemical exposure allegations solely on the Engine Shop, claiming the legal cases are relative only to “that particular locus”.

The tragic reality is that chemical misuse was rampant everywhere in Baldonnel. While 14 individuals have tragically died prematurely from the Engine Shop / Avionics building, a staggering 102 personnel have died prematurely from the rest of the airbase. This means that 88% of the 116 recorded premature deaths occurred among men and women who served in units *outside* of the Engine Shop.

Without a doubt, Mr. Breen has misled the PAC in an attempt to rewrite history, downplay the profound incompetence of the SCA’s safety audits between 2006 and 2016, and minimize the State’s sweeping liability. It is yet another chapter in the State’s cruel playbook of “Delay, Deny, Die.”

To learn more about the campaign for truth, justice, and healthcare for exposed personnel, visit the Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors (ACCAS) website: www.accas.info

Delay – Deny – DLie

Dáil Éireann Priority Questions 07/05/26 – Air Corps – Minister rejects health supports for Air Corps victims

Watch Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire TD, the Sinn Fein Spokesperson for Defence, ask the recently appointed Minister for Defence Helen McEntee for an update on medical supports for exposed Air Corps personnel and watch her gaslight survivors & downplay their experience while ignoring and the issue of medical supports.

Transcript

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

Question: 67. Deputy Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire asked the Minister for Defence further to recent Dáil Éireann debates, her views on past health and safety measures in the Air Corps; the actions she intends to take to support former aircraft maintenance and ancillary personnel; whether she intends to ensure their medical needs are met; and the other supports that can be offered to the category affected as a whole. [33426/26]

Since our last engagement on this issue, we have had the “RTÉ Investigates” documentary, considerable reporting by Neil Michael from the Irish Examiner, and many disturbing and worrying disclosures and descriptions of what was going on. It is clear that Air Corps personnel were exposed to unsafe working conditions and to dangerous chemicals and there seems to be a strong correlation to very serious illness and bad health outcomes. These are people who served the State. They should get support. What does the Minister intend to do about it and how does she intend to ensure that they are looked after?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I thank the Deputy for raising this. I acknowledge the Deputy’s engagement around the issue. I welcome the opportunity to set out the position as it stands. As there are multiple ongoing cases before the courts, as I have stated previously, I am limited in terms of what I can say so that I do not prejudice any of the ongoing litigation. The Deputy has said previously that it is possible to discuss both but I always want to be careful in that regard.

The advice available to me is that any view I have here needs to be carefully expressed so that we do not undermine the current process. Each claim has to receive the necessary case-specific analysis and consideration because what is clear is that each individual case is different to a certain extent.

I had a number of briefs from my officials on this. I then requested further detailed analysis from them. I have received that and carefully considered it. I convened a meeting with the Attorney General, representatives from the State Claims Agency and officials from my Department to discuss the matter further, having sought various different advices.

There are accusations that the State is prolonging legal proceedings as a deliberate tactic but that is not the case. It is important to stress that at every step of the way, the engagement that we have had, be it through the State Claims Agency working with individuals, has been to try to find a resolution and to work constructively with them.

The State Claims Agency has confirmed to me that it has made representations to the legal representatives of the litigants to explore the possibility of mediation to find a resolution to this issue. This is the way we want to move forward – that we can mediate and find a way forward – but those approaches have been rejected pending the cases having been set down for hearing.

I would encourage all those involved. We want to find a way forward. We do not want this to have to go to a court setting. There is an offer there from the State Claims Agency to work with it and with its legal representatives. We all want to find a mutually agreeable resolution, taking into consider what people have gone through and the current individual situation for those involved in this overall. I would encourage them to take up that offer and to engage more broadly with us.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

To be honest, that is a frustrating response because the Minister is well aware that I have outlined the point in the past. I would say there are issues in relation to the handling of the State Claims Agency of these cases. It is not appropriate for us to get into individual cases. I have never asked the Minister to do so. I have never tried to discuss individual cases in this Chamber, with the Minister or her predecessor. The issue here is in relation to a category of people who were acting in the service of the State. They were supporting the Defence Forces in terms of maintenance of aircraft. As the Air Corps Chemical Abuse Survivors group outlined, there have been 130 potential premature deaths. Clearly, we need to get to the bottom of that.

I am not asking for an update on the legal side, although I think there are issues in relation to the State Claims Agency’s approach. What I am asking for is what the Minister proposes to do, and which we discussed previously, in terms of the whole category, a potential package of health supports and health safeguarding, including forms of screening, and an accountability mechanism. There has to be an accountability mechanism as well.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

There are 22 active cases before the courts, which we are trying to engage with. Like the Deputy, I want to understand whether this is something that is happening on a wider scale but at the same time, we have to identify whether or not there is a consistent pattern here. Work has been done within the Department to see whether this is something that has been happening on a broader scale and whether there is a consistent pattern beyond the 22 people the Deputy is talking about here, and even within those cases where there is not a consistent pattern in terms of health implications or issues that have come to the fore. I am not for a second disputing the fact that the people who we are engaging with have health concerns and have had health concerns. There has never been a dispute that there needed to be better measures in place in terms of health and safety, whether it was gloves or handling. Whether the exposure had the overall effect, as has been set out by the individuals in the 22 active cases, is what is being discussed and engaged with at present. I would encourage all those to engage further in a mediation process that we have been actively trying to pursue because I think this the best route to be able to come to a conclusion for all of the individuals concerned.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

If there is a pattern, we are not going to find that out in the High Court. That will be found out through a process the Department seems to be considering. A memo was due to be brought to the Minister in the first quarter but we are past the first quarter now. That is what I recall the Minister saying. Has the Minister considered this memo in relation to a whole-category approach?

I ask the Minister to not go back into the legal cases. The clear example is in relation to Australia where the Australian air force saw that there was an issue, it engaged with the group and the people retained their right to take cases as they saw fit but there was health screening, an accountability mechanism and health supports. There is nothing preventing the Minister from doing that. When will she make a decision as to whether the Government will put in place a process such as there was in Australia – a study of health outcomes, identifying whether there is causation and ensuring support for people who are very sick? Among these people, there have been heart conditions, colorectal cancer and suicides.

Clearly there is a need for things like routine cardiac screening. These are all things that can be done without any reference to the court cases. When will the Minister make a decision on a solution for the whole category?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

The Deputy referenced Australia. The case in Australia involved de-seal and reseal programmes. The maintenance workers were quite literally required to physically climb into fuel tanks of F111 fighter jets. They worked in extremely cramped conditions for extended periods with chronic confined exposure to concentrated hazardous substances. Nobody has suggested at any point that this is in any way aligned with the conditions in the Air Corps.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

No, but it still goes on.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

We have said very clearly that there need to be better health and safety standards. That is something that has been made very clear and those changes have been made. As the Deputy has outlined, we have a significant number of different conditions that have come to the fore with the litigants who have been mentioned. However, it has not yet been identified whether this was specific to the exposure.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

We should find out.

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

I told the Deputy that there was a body of work being done initially to see if there is a connection. Is there an increased level of particular types of health complications? Was there an increased level within the Air Corps during that time because of that exposure?

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

When will we find out?

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

That body of work is still under way at the moment. I do not think we can say this is the same as Australia.

Donnchadh Ó Laoghaire (Cork South-Central, Sinn Féin)

I hear the Minister saying that but when will we find out?

 

Helen McEntee (Meath East, Fine Gael)

That work is under way and I will bring that to the Dáil and to the Deputy’s attention when I can. If people have been harmed here, I want to make sure we know about it. I also want to make sure that those involved in the process can engage with us and come to a conclusion on that process.

*****

During her appearance in Dáil Éireann on May 7, 2026, Minister for Defence Helen McEntee prefaced her remarks by claiming she had to limit her comments “so that I do not prejudice any of the ongoing litigation”. She informed the Dáil that she had been advised to speak cautiously to avoid undermining the judicial process, arguing that “each claim has to receive the necessary case-specific analysis and consideration because what is clear is that each individual case is different to a certain extent”.

However, despite this stated commitment to avoiding prejudice, she immediately went on the public record to make several assertions directly related to the core disputes of the active cases:

      • Disputing Causation: While she conceded that “there has never been a dispute that there needed to be better measures in place in terms of health and safety,” she used her platform to publicly question whether the toxic chemical exposure was directly responsible for the victims’ illnesses. She stated that “whether the exposure had the overall effect, as has been set out by the individuals in the 22 active cases, is what is being discussed and engaged with at present”. She compounded this by claiming that “it has not yet been identified whether this was specific to the exposure”.
      • Commenting on Legal Strategy and Avoiding Accountability: She publicly discussed ongoing legal negotiations, announcing that the State Claims Agency had offered mediation to find a resolution, but that “those approaches have been rejected” by the plaintiffs who are waiting for their cases to be set down for a hearing. In an attempt to present the State as eager to resolve the matter amicably, she remarked: “I would encourage all those involved. We want to find a way forward. We do not want this to have to go to a court setting”. As noted by advocates, this statement is a calculated attempt to victim-blame the plaintiffs for decade-long legal delays. More importantly, by aggressively pushing for confidential mediation and working to keep all cases out of a court setting, the State is actively denying the victims true justice. Settling out of court ensures that no legal precedent will ever be set, thereby allowing the State, the Department of Defence, and the State Claims Agency to entirely avoid public and legal accountability for their roles in this scandal.

      • Downplaying the Severity of the Exposure: The Minister also publicly dismissed comparisons between the toxic exposure in the Irish Air Corps and the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) Deseal/Reseal scandal. She downplayed the Irish working environment by arguing that the Australian personnel operated in “extremely cramped conditions” inside fuel tanks and claimed that “nobody has suggested at any point that this is in any way aligned with the conditions in the Air Corps”.

Minister McEntee effectively used the excuse of ongoing litigation as a shield to avoid committing to proactive healthcare interventions for the survivors. Yet, in the exact same exchange, she felt comfortable enough to publicly cast doubt on the victims’ claims of causation, minimize the severity of their working conditions, and criticize their rejection of mediation—all while executing a strategy designed to keep the facts out of a courtroom and shield the State from accountability.

*****

It should be noted that the Minister actively refuses to hear the other side of the story. Minister McEntee is only engaging with the perpetrators and the State Claims Agency whose personnel have profited from this scandal through performance relate gratuities. Minister McEntee has refused to talk to victims as have her immediate predecessors.

*****

Delay – Deny – Die