Total cost of child abuse inquiry may exceed €1bn

The total cost of the child abuse scandal is likely to amount to up to €1 billion, including legal fees and compensation to victims, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey conceded this afternoon.

Mr Dempsey was speaking at the launch of Judge Seán Ryan's report into the workings of the Commission To Inquire Into Child Abuse this evening.

Judge Ryan notes in his review that the Government could eventually end up paying out as much to lawyers as the people they are representing. The minister conceded this evening the Residential Institutions Redress Board would be paying out an estimated €500 million to victims, while the legal costs of the Commission could reach a similar level.

The Commission is divided into two separate inquiries - a Confidential Committee where victims are able to recount their ordeals in private, and an Investigative Committee which involves hearings and legal teams. The minister accepted tonight the legal costs of the Investigative Committee alone could amount to at least  €200 million.

The Government struck a deal with the Catholic Church in 2002 for the religious community to pay €128 million towards the cost of abuse claims in return for indemnification. Mr Dempsey rejected a suggestion tonight that this deal should now be revisited. "There is no mechanism by which it can be revisited," he said.

In his review, the second since the Commission was established in 2000, Judge Ryan has recommended a series of sweeping changes. These, he said, were intended to halt the spiralling costs and shorten the timeframe of the inquiry, which - according to some estimates  - could have taken 11 years.

The judge said that without substantial change, the estimate of 11 years would be optimistic. The prospect of the inquiry dragging out for decades was, Mr Dempsey said, "frightening".

Late last year Mr Dempsey controversially suggested that sample cases could be taken to speed up the inquiry, but he abandoned the proposal under pressure from victims' groups.

However, Judge Ryan has recommended that the Commission should decide whether or not to hear each case on the basis of its chances of reaching a conclusion.  Mr Dempsey insisted this was not the same as sampling, saying each and every case would be looked into and decided upon individually. He said the Government had made a promise to hear every complaint of abuse, "and that promise still remains".

But the spokesman of one of the groups represented at the Commission, Mr John Kelly of SOCA (Survivors of Child Abuse) said outside Government Buildings this evening he would be recommending members to reject the recommendations out of hand. He said it was "sampling by another name".

Asked whether the fact this was the second review of the legislation governing the work of the Commission amounted to an admission of failure of the previous Government, Mr Dempsey accepted he had underestimated the workload involved in the inquiry. He said it was an "error of judgment", as investigating all 1,712 cases "was clearly not feasible". Despite this, the Government was trying to make it "as reasonable and easy as possible for people to get redress."

Judge Ryan's main conclusions are that amendments to the act governing the Commission were needed in order to bring more focus to its work. Procedural changes are also required to enable joint hearings to take place rather than the current system of cases being dealt with individually, the report continued.

He has suggested that each of the 1,712 complainants should be offered the chance to pursue their complaints through the inquiry process of the Investigation Committee.

"Preliminary examination by the Investigation Committee will seek to eliminate cases where there is no realistic prospect of a finding and sympathetic measures will then be taken to direct victims to the Confidential Committee where appropriate," the report says.

It is also proposes that some victims will not be required to give oral evidence before the inquiry and statements will be accepted instead, provided they are not contested by those facing allegations of committing abuse. The "therapeutic function" of the Commission should also be reduced creating a greater focus on the inquiry function, Judge Ryan recommends.

The judge also recommends the publishing of interim reports as work proceeds to keep the public informed.

Judge  Ryan was appointed by the Government to succeed Justice Mary Laffoy, who resigned last September, protesting the Government was hampering her investigation.

Mr Dempsey said the Government had agreed in principle to Judge Ryan’s recommendations. The judge will now write to all the victims asking them to accept his recommendations.