Agreement has been reached between the Government, victims' representatives and church authorities on the terms of reference for the statutory inquiry into the handling of abuse complaints by the Archdiocese of Dublin.
Proposals for the inquiry, which is expected to be chaired by Circuit Court Judge Yvonne Murphy, will be brought to Cabinet tomorrow morning and if approved will be announced in the afternoon by Minister for Justice Michael McDowell.
The inquiry will also have a "parallel module" that will carry out a preliminary examination of the handling of abuse cases in other dioceses.
This inquiry will then recommend to the inquiry chairperson whether a full statutory inquiry should take place into specific dioceses or cases.
There have been detailed discussions in recent weeks between various parties about the terms of reference of the inquiry, relating to "sampling" and how far back the inquiry can investigate.
It is believed that the inquiry will deal with complaints from 1975 onwards, but will be able to look at the entire history of complaints against a cleric whose case it decides to examine.
There were concerns that significant cases could be excluded under the original terms of reference or that the inquiry could have been excluded from investigating parts of files relating to accused priests that predated 1975.
The inquiry will also be able to "sample cases" rather than conduct an inquiry into every single case it becomes aware of.
The decision on which cases to examine will be a matter for the inquiry itself. It will also decide how inquiries into other dioceses will proceed. This is in response to Taoiseach Bertie Ahern's commitment last month to have an "audit" of other dioceses in the wake of the Ferns report.
However, it is understood that the word "audit" has not been used in the terms of reference.
The full inquiry will have 18 months to conclude its work, although there is provision for the deadline to be extended, following a request from the chair.
Meanwhile, the Residential Institutions Redress Board has placed advertisements in the national media today reminding people that the final closing date for applications for compensation is December 15th.
The scheme was established by the Government to provide compensation to former residents of industrial schools and children's homes who suffered abuse or neglect.
The cost to the State of the scheme is now expected to be in the region of €800 million.
As of the end of July there had been more than 7,000 applications, with the rate doubling in 2005 to 400 a month.
Between 9,000 and 10,000 people are expected to apply for compensation, compared with original estimates five years ago from the Department of Education of 2,000 or less.