Nearly three-quarters of the sum was paid out in relation to clinical care incidents, with €210.5 million paid out in 2024, down from €275.9 million in 2023.

There was a dramatic drop in payments related to exposure to chemical hazards, from €44.2 million in 2023 to just €5 million in 2024.

However, most other categories saw increases, with total compensation payouts for exposure to psychological hazards increasing from €24.7 million in 2023 to €28.3 million in 2024.

Payouts for exposure to physical hazards rose to €21.1 million from €16.4 million and payouts for exposure to behavioural hazards increased to €15.2 million from €11.3 million.

The total for crashes and collisions increased to €5.5 million from €3.2 million.

Payouts for exposure to biological hazards increased to €1 million from around €660,000 in the previous year.

Compensation payments in other categories declined from €481,000 to €348,000.

In total, the SCA paid out €376.8 million in 2023, €287 million in 2024, and had paid out €14.8 million in January 2025.

The figures were released to Social Democrats TD Aidan Farrelly in response to a parliamentary question.

Mr Farrelly said: “It is important to get a clear view of these annual outgoings.

“It is noted in the C&AG’s report where that Office identifies the State Claims Agency as key in the NTMA’s operations that there is ‘a continuation of the upward trend in the estimated contingent liability of the claims being managed by the State Claims Agency’.

“I would expect that when we have a functioning committee system up and running in the Houses of the Oireachtas that either the Public Accounts Committee or the Finance Committee will find this information useful during the course of their work in the context of deeper scrutiny.”