The numbers of people claiming compensation for being abused in religious-run industrial schools will not exceed 5,000, the Department of Education believes - despite fears that the numbers could grow.
Department of Education sources yesterday said the State's compensation bill would remain close to the €500 million estimated when the Government agreed last year's indemnity deal with the 18 religious orders.
So far, 3,000 people have dealt with the Laffoy Commission's investigation of child abuse in industrial schools, while 2,500 more are taking legal action against religious congregations.
"There is no doubt but that there is a lot of doubling-up going on here. These are the numbers coming forward after years of public focus on the issue," a source told The Irish Times.
In June 2002, the religious organisations agreed to pay €128 million in cash and property in return for an indemnity from all future compensation claims by alleged victims.
Rejecting charges that the religious orders were left off easily, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, said the Cabinet's legal advice had been that the orders could have "walked away totally from the deal".
"It must be remembered that the children were put in there by the State and there is a legal view that the State is totally responsible for all of the costs. The State should have been doing this job for 40 years and we did not do it," he told TV3.
The Government has denied charges that the then Minister for Education, Dr Woods, scuppered attempts by the Department of Finance to get the orders to pay 50 per cent of all compensation awarded.
"The 50/50 demand was one put forward by the Government at the beginning of very difficult negotiations. But the final indemnity deal was agreed by finance, education and the Attorney General's office," a source said.
However, the final negotiations with the orders, which had been deadlocked for months, were personally handled by Dr Woods - without the presence of senior Department of Education officials.
Defending the deal, Dr Woods said any larger contribution would have bankrupted the orders.
"The whole thing was done very thoroughly and very properly and it was a fair and reasonable settlement for the State and the orders. The financial situation of some of the orders is on the borderline and consideration had to be given not to push them too far," said Dr Woods, who was dropped from the Cabinet after the last election.
However, it has now emerged that the brothers and nuns accepted a €6 million payment from their insurers, Church and General, to cover all potential child abuse claims before the deal with the State was finalised.
The money will be used, said the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy's Sister Helena O'Donoghue, to help abuse victims. "It isn't the case that we will receive anything on the double," she said.
The Department of Education believes the Residential Institutions Redress Board will award an average of €100,000 to €120,000 to people coming before it.
However, the maximum €300,000 award will only be available to those who suffered serious sexual abuse. "Just 20 per cent of people who have come before Laffoy are claiming to have been sexually abused," the source claimed.
The Green Party leader, Mr Trevor Sargent, called for the full release of all documents on the indemnity deal held by the Department of Education.
