When details of the abuse of children in institutional care were shown on national television over two years ago, it prompted a public apology from the Taoiseach and a promise to make reparation. That process has been bogged down since in disputes over compensation and the legal costs of victims.
Since its establishment in April 2000 the work of the commission set up to inquire into child abuse has been held up by disputes between the solicitors for most of the victims and the Department of Education. As a result, these victims have been refusing to appear before the commission's investigation committee.
The investigation committee is the wing of the commission seeking to establish what happened to the children who were abused, and who was responsible. It has had some preliminary hearings relating to most of the victims, though it has been proceeding with the complaints from victims whose solicitors are not in dispute with the Department.
The other wing of the commission, its confidential committee, has been hearing victims' testimonies. Its purpose is purely therapeutic, its proceedings will never become public, and it has no function in apportioning blame, but it will make a general report.
The dispute about compensation was settled with the publication, last June, of a Bill to set up a Residential Institutions Redress Board, which will decide on compensation claims for abuse in institutions. Levels of compensation will be recommended by an expert group of lawyers, psychologists and psychiatrists, chaired by Mr John Ryan SC. The board is likely to be chaired by a senior legal figure, and is expected to be fully operational by the beginning of next year.
Based on international experience, it is expected that between 8,000 and 9,000 victims of abuse will bring claims before it. No levels of compensation exist yet, but these are likely to be based on a tariff linked to the severity of the abuse and the degree of psychological damage, and be related to the damages awarded in the courts. The estimated cost of settling these claims is likely to run to between £200 million and £400 million. The Department of Education is negotiating the sharing of the cost with the religious congregations.
However, if most victims go to the redress board and settle their claims there, it will greatly reduce the legal costs involved, especially to the State, as they will not then be pursuing their cases through the courts. About 1,500 claims have been lodged in the High Court for damages arising out of abuse in institutions and schools, but these have been put on hold pending the establishment of the redress board.
The question of the payment of the legal costs of victims has proved even more intractable than that of compensation.
Initially the Department of Education proposed that all the victims be represented at the commission hearings by a single legal team. It was then proposed that each victim be entitled to £650 for legal costs.
This was unacceptable to the victims, who argued that they should be entitled to the same level of representation as the people they were accusing. It is expected that the major religious orders involved in the running of residential institutions will have two senior counsel and a junior counsel each.
The Department then devised, with the Attorney General, a scheme where each victim would have a solicitor and counsel of their choice, paid on a fee per item basis . However, there is no indication that this proposal will be acceptable to the main group of solicitors, and lead them to recommend that their clients participate in the commission.
A large number of the victims are represented by a relatively small number of solicitors' firms.
The issue of legal costs may yet end up with the Taxing Master of the High Court, who decides on disputed legal costs in court cases. The taxation of costs would require an amendment to the legislation setting up the commission.