Ireland's State Claims Agency (SCA) is to defend 48 compensation claims from people who say they caught MRSA while in Irish hospitals, according to reports.
The Times said that Brian Lynch, a Galway solicitor, is planning to lodge actions on behalf of a further 125 people. In addition, there is expected to be a number of claims from other firms.
Margaret Dawson, of the MRSA and Families support group, said it had been inundated with calls from sufferers who want to sue.
The SCA says it will defend the actions, none of which has been settled.
Some claimants are expected to try to prove hospitals failed to follow their own disease control policies as in the landmark case of MRSA sufferer Kitty Cope, 87, who won £110,000 from an NHS trust in South Wales after arguing the hospital did not meet its own standards of infection control.
However, because MRSA is not exclusive to hospitals, legal sources say it will be difficult for claimants to prove they did not contract the infection elsewhere.
So far, about a dozen claims have been discontinued. The first case is not expected to reach trial in the High Court until next year.