Child Abuse
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ABUSE victims have received more than €580m in compensation from the Residential Institutions Redress Board so far.
The payments, at an average of €71,000 each, have been made to almost 6,900 people who suffered physical, sexual or mental abuse while attending State or church-run institutions.
The Comptroller and Auditor General has estimated the final cost of the scheme at €1.1bn.
This means that the State may pay more than 10 times the amount the Catholic Church handed over as part of a deal reached in 2002. Some 18 religious congregations which managed the orphanages and industrial schools paid €128m in return for an indemnity against future legal actions by former residents.
In its latest newsletter, the Board said it had made 5,256 offers so far to victims following settlement talks and 1,567 awards. There were no awards in 345 cases, due mainly to the fact that the residential institution at the centre of the claim was not covered by the board. So far, just one person has been referred to gardai on suspicion of making a false claim - and no criminal prosecution is being pursued in this case.
Around €488m has been paid out in direct compensation to victims, and legal costs are running at around 20pc of the awards. This brings the total figure to more than €585m.
The Board is only half way through its work. It had a setback with the death of its chairman Judge Sean O'Leary last week.
The Board said it had received thousands of extra applications before last year's December deadline.
Another 166 applications have been received since the deadline passed, but the Board has the discretion to accept them if there are exceptional circumstances.