PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
TWO MONTHS following publication of the Ryan commission report on May 20th, four members of that commission remain in situ, in unexplained circumstances.
All four are being paid fortnightly at department assistant secretary levels, between €150,000 and €160,000 annually.
Current estimates indicate that the overall cost of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, to give the Ryan commission its proper title, could be between €89 million and €99 million. By the end of 2008, that figure was €59.3 million, with further costs being estimated at between €30 million and €40 million.
The commission had six members, together with its chairman Mr Justice Seán Ryan.
Mr Justice Ryan took his seat at the High Court early in June. Commissioner Norah Gibbons formally resigned from her post on May 20th following publication of the report. However, her work with the commission’s confidential committee ended in March 2006 when she returned to Barnardos, the children’s agency, where she is a director. She has not received payment from the commission since then.
Prof Edward Tempany, a retired consultant paediatrician, had been appointed to the commission to help with its vaccine trials inquiry. This was discontinued in November 2003 following an action in the High Court, as was his work at the commission.
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