The Government proposals to change the operation of the Laffoy Commission will include plans to hear a much smaller number than the 1,700 outstanding cases before the child abuse inquiry.
It is expected the inquiry will then be allowed to draw inferences from the outcome of those limited number of cases. This measure, which will be considered by the Cabinet at its weekly meeting today, is intended to radically reduce the legal costs associated with the Laffoy Commission and to ensure the inquiry is completed sooner than current projections of up to 11 years.
The Government is also expected to defend its stewardship of the inquiry by, today or tomorrow, publishing its own version of the events that led to the resignation last week of Ms Justice Laffoy.
With the Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, under mounting political pressure to resolve the affair, the Government is expected to publish its proposals today or tomorrow.
Mr Ahern was particularly critical yesterday of the stance adopted by lawyers acting for parties before the Commission. Speaking to journalists in Dublin yesterday, he strongly implied the proposed reform of the inquiry would be used to reduce the Government's exposure to legal fees.
"If we keep going the way we're going, if we didn't have a review, then we would probably have about 10,000 legal teams sitting to try to sort out a problem that was fairly straightforward: that people were abused in institutions and we wanted to try to give them redress to that.
"Maybe I should have seen the possibility that trying to help people who were abused was going to turn into a huge operation for the legal profession. Maybe I should have seen that, but I didn't. I was dealing with people who were abused and people who had suffered an awful lot and I met those and I didn't meet posses of legal people."
The proposals for changing the Commission have already been under consideration by the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, for many months and the Government is keen to diffuse the controversy ahead of a two-day Fianna Fáil parliamentary party meeting starting tomorrow in Sligo.
"I do think we're looking at delays of maybe seven or 10 years if each individual case is to be fought on an individual basis," Mr Ahern said yesterday.
In seeking to defend its role in the inquiry, the Government will also publish its correspondence with Ms Justice Laffoy.
Mr Ahern also indicated the Government would attempt to resolve legal doubts over the standing of the investigations into events that took place decades ago.
He said: "The issue is this: Can you legally, with all the issues of prejudice and all the grounds of prejudice, actually go back and make cases and allegations and prove them against people, back as we were since 1940?"
While Mr Ahern insisted he had no argument with Ms Justice Laffoy, he said her resignation was unfortunate.
The Taoiseach said he accepted the complaints outlined in the judge's resignation letter. "I accept Justice Laffoy's criticisms, she has worked on this. We have to deal with them and I think she understands our difficulties."
He did not accept, however, that the Government rendered the investigation "powerless".
The Taoiseach was immediately attacked by the Fine Gael leader, Mr Enda Kenny, who criticised the "offhand" manner of his remarks.
Mr Kenny said it was now beyond doubt that the Government never properly enabled the Commission to carry the work set by the Oireachtas.
The Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte, said Mr Ahern was now obliged to accept that the Government's actions had "brought about a situation involving considerable distress and uncertainty for many hundreds of vulnerable citizens".
