A coalition of victims of child abuse in institutions says the Government's proposals for a compensatory scheme are insulting and discriminatory.
The group, representing some 1,200 victims, wants changes in the proposals to compensate people who suffered physical, emotional and sexual abuse as children while resident in State and religious-run schools and institutions since the 1940s.
The Federation of Independent Survivors Group will meet Department of Education officials next Wednesday to discuss the proposed scheme, which some officials estimate could cost up to £100 million. The scheme is due to be operational by next summer.
Under the Government's proposals, it would be based on Canadian programmes, with a sliding scale of awards paid for various types of abuse, ranging from severe sexual to minor physical abuse and non-physical mistreatment. An expert group is proposed to determine criteria for the awards.
However, in its counterproposals submitted to the Department, the federation says the Canadian model is not appropriate. It instead calls for the establishment of a compensation tribunal similar to the hepatitis C tribunal which, it says, would have substantially better safeguards and allow more wide-ranging damages.
The survivors are also opposed to the State's plans not to allow compensation for loss of earnings to survivors due to stunted intellectual development or restricted career choices caused by abuse.
The Government proposals say establishing this would be "extremely difficult if not impossible, and placing a monetary sum on loss of earnings would involve making assumptions that have no basis in fact".
It also says it considers it unlikely that the High Court in a civil action would award damages for loss of earnings in such circumstances.
The federation, however, points to a 1970 government report showing that the intelligence and mental well-being of children in industrial schools was well below that of the general population.
It also wants compensation to be paid to day pupils at schools. The Government proposes only compensating residents in institutions on the basis that they were removed from the normal protection of their families and put in care supervised by the State which had a duty to protect them.
A spokesman for the federation, Mr John Kelly, said yesterday: "The Government's discussion document is an insult, and we are asking the Department of Education to call off its war of words against survivors.
"We want to be treated as equal citizens. We weren't as children treated as equal citizens and now we have to be if the Taoiseach's apology to survivors is to have any meaning."
He said the Canadian payment scales were "paltry", and the survivors the federation represents want to retain the right to appeal awards to the High Court. The Government's proposals rule out this possibility on the basis that it would "blur the distinction" between formal court proceedings and a compensation scheme.
It also maintains that allowing High Court appeals would hinder the swift resolution of claims, which is one of the main benefits of a compensation scheme. Victims who rejected an award through the scheme could still pursue a civil claim in the normal way through the courts.
The proposed compensatory scheme would be separate from the ongoing work of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse set up in 1999 to investigate child abuse in reformatories and industrial schools, orphanages, homes and hospitals since the 1940s.
The Government announced its plans to set up a compensation scheme last October after an ad-hoc group of solicitors effectively threatened to advise their 1,200 clients to boycott the commission.
The federation comprises Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), Justice Healing for Institutionally Abused, the Organisation for the Recovery of Institutionally Abused and Right to Peace and the British group, Irish Victims of Institutional Child Abuse - North West.