Court awards and settlements totalling 277 million euros, including 93 million euros in legal costs, have been paid out so far to 15,363 claimants from Ireland's army, air force and navy, he said.

The cases of over 1,300 other serving and retired troops are still pending, Smith added.

"At one stage this looked as if it would be a never-ending saga that would cost the taxpayer over a billion euros," he said.

But claims which peaked in the late 1990s have been declining steadily. "While (compensation) has still cost a very significant sum, this is considerably less than what was initially estimated," said the minister.

From generals to privates, all ranks have sued the state on the basis that servicemen were not provided with adequate ear protection on firing ranges for decades.

Some of the claims are made by people who served for only brief periods in the country's part-time army 30 to 40 years ago.

At the peak in the late 1990s, up to 80 percent of soldiers in some Irish barracks were claiming hearing loss. In 1998 the defence ministry was processing 54 claims a week, but now sees only one a week.

The average award has also dropped -- from 30,300 euros in the late 1990s to to 5,714 euros this year.

"I am also satisfied that genuine claimants have been adequately compensated and I expect the matter to draw to a close in the near future", Smith said.

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