MORE than €110m was paid out in legal fees and compensation by the Department of Health and the HSE last year.

The spending includes court cases involving patients, staff and other members of the public who sought redress from the government.

The Department of Health spent a total of €79.59m during the course of last year, figures obtained by the Sunday Tribune have shown.

"This figure includes costs in relation to medical indemnity cases and costs paid out in respect of the Hepatitis C and HIV tribunals and the Lourdes redress board," the department said.

A further €30.3m was spent by the Health Service Executive on legal fees but details on how much compensation was paid are not available. The enormous costs were part of €78m paid out in the past four years by the HSE to barristers and solicitors for their work.

The HSE has faced continual criticism over its massive spending in areas like legal fees and transport costs. Earlier this year, it emerged that it had paid out €300m on staff travel and mileage costs over the past three years.

It was the subject of sharp criticism in this year's report by the Comptroller and Auditor General for failing to address a budget overrun of €245m.

The report said the HSE expected to be "bailed out" with extra funding and said the health service was fragmented, disjointed and difficult for patients to access.

Comptroller and Auditor General John Buckley said that by November 2006, the HSE knew its allocation for services would be around €341m short.

However, senior management did not implement a break-even plan until the following July by which time it was only able to make savings of €96m.