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The Child Abuse Commission will next week deliver its final report, but the greatest difficulty it has faced is the sheer scale of the abuse it was established to investigate, writes MARY RAFTERY

A DECADE AFTER it was established, the Child Abuse Commission is at last to produce its final report next week. After so many years, and an estimated cost of more than €70 million, it has been one of the most secret and arguably the most controversial of the many tribunals of inquiry. The Commission’s initial presiding judge resigned in protest at the behaviour of one of the government departments under investigation. It has produced a few sensations in its time, but given that most of its hearings have been strictly in private, much is riding on its final report.