MORE than 400 so-called "army deafness" claims still have not been settled more than a decade after the expensive legal saga first began.

The Department of Defence has confirmed that 16,807 current and former members of the Defence Forces had taken action for loss of hearing.

Of that number, 16,139 claims have been dealt with at a total cost to the taxpayer of €288.7m, leaving 668 cases unsettled, some of which are now considered "inactive".

The Department of Defence said that the State Claims Agency, which now manages the compensation demands, were actively dealing with 417 cases.

From the costs paid out by the taxpayer, more than €100m of that went directly to solicitors and barristers, some of whom became millionaires from the claims.

At least nine firms made more than €2m from deafness claims, figures show, including one firm who earned more than €16m.

It is understood that the number of new complaints from members or former members has almost ground to a halt with only a handful of new claims in recent years.

Since September 2005, all of the compensation payments have been handled by the State Claims Agency, which has finalised 851 different claims.

A statement said: "[The] department has paid €1.2m in plaintiff costs and €1.4m in agency, legal and related costs to the State Claims Agency in respect of hearing loss claims.

"The State Claims Agency estimates the cost of dealing with the remaining currently active army hearing losses will be approximately €8m.

"Hearing loss claims received after July 2002 are generally being contested on the basis of Statute of Limitations."

The department said there was a continuous programme of education for all military personnel in relation to hearing equipment.

"The military authorities have issued state of the art hearing protection to all members of the Defence Forces and all range supervising officers are required to ensure that personnel engaged in firing wear the appropriate protection.

"All other persons on the firing range are required to wear protection when within the noise danger area."

Military sources said the final estimated bill for army deafness of around €300m was substantially better than what was originally expected.

There were fears claims could cost up to €1bn.