The Government will publish a Bill within the next few weeks setting up a compensation scheme for the victims of institutional child abuse.
The Bill is expected to include a provision for the religious orders involved in the institutions to contribute to the compensation fund, in return for a waiver from civil litigation. However, those who do not agree to contribute would have no such waiver.
It is understood that legal representatives will meet the Attorney General this week to discuss details of the proposed legislation.
Negotiations are still going on with representatives of the religious orders about the amount they will contribute, and these are unlikely to be finalised before the Bill is published. However, sources in the Department of Education said the orders are expected to make a "meaningful contribution".
The Bill will be published a year after the need for such a scheme was raised with the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse by solicitors acting for victims. The commission was established following the screening of the States of Fear programme about child abuse in industrial schools.
The commission adjourned its sittings last June to allow the Government to consider this proposal. In September it criticised the Cabinet for its delay in coming to a decision. The following month the Government announced there would be a scheme. However, it was many more months before the details were worked out, which are now to be outlined in the Bill.
The compensation-awarding body will be chaired by a retired or senior serving member of the judiciary. Inquiries as to eligibility for compensation will be non-adversarial, and confined to essential facts concerning residence in an institution and medical/psychiatric assessments.
Compensation will be paid for current and continuing damage caused by abuse, as well as past damage from which the claimant has recovered. The Bill will publish detailed criteria for awards.
The compensation scheme will be restricted to those who were abused in residential institutions, although there have been criminal convictions of teachers who abused in day schools. More than 100 of those who approached the commission reported abuse in non-residential schools.
In its interim report issued just over a week ago, the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, whose remit includes those abused in schools, said it would be regrettable if those excluded from the compensation scheme were discouraged from participating in the work of the commission. This was particularly so, it added, in the 21st century, as "treatment of children outside the family home in non-residential settings and in foster care is as relevant as treatment of children in residential settings".
Asked about the exclusion of day-school pupils, a spokesman for the Department of Education asked: "If you extend the scheme to day pupils, why not extend it to the boy scouts?" He pointed out that the teachers concerned were employed, not by the Department, but by boards of management, though he acknowledged that they were paid by the Department.
Some legal representatives of the victims have expressed frustration at the delay in setting up the scheme, especially as the Statute of Limitations deadline runs out on June 20th and the Bill may not be published by then. This leaves the victims with no option but to initiate civil proceedings, as they will not know what to expect from the compensation scheme.
However, these concerns were dismissed by the Department spokesman, who said the actions could be initiated and later dropped, when the nature of the scheme became clear. The costs of such action would be met in any case, he said.