Mr. Seamus McCarthy:

The report for consideration by the committee this morning pertains to an examination by my office of the cost to the State of responding to abuse over many years of children resident in certain institutions run by a number of religious congregations and subject to supervision by the Department of Education and Skills on behalf of the State. There were three key elements to the response: a commission of inquiry to establish what occurred in the institutions; a redress scheme administered by the residential institution redress board to compensate former residents of the institutions for abuse they suffered; and a range of practical and social supports provided to former residents and their family members.

The structures put in place to account for the costs were varied and complex, with the result that it requires considerable effort to piece together the overall expenditure in any one year. Because the work of the commission of inquiry and the redress board was almost complete at the end of 2015, I felt it would be useful, in parallel with the audits of the various 2015 annual financial statements, to compile an overview of the aggregate costs as at the end of 2015. The report also provides information on the contributions towards the costs received from the religious institutions and seeks to identify lessons learned that may potentially assist in the event that it is decided in the future to establish further redress schemes. We estimate that the final overall cost of investigating and responding to the abuse in the institutions will be of the order of €1.5 billion. By far the largest element, accounting for 82%, relates to the redress scheme. The next largest element, at 12%, relates to the various supports provided for the former residents and their families. The costs associated with the commission of inquiry which substantially completed its work in 2009 account for 5% of the total. Awards and costs related to legal cases pursued by former residents through the courts instead of under the redress scheme make up the remaining 1%. The religious congregations were indemnified against costs arising in such cases under a formal legal agreement they entered into with the Department of Education and Science in 2002.

The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse was established in 2000 and the Department initially expected it to operate for two years at a forecasted cost of around €2.5 million. In the event, the final report of the commission which is often referred to as the Ryan report was published in May 2009 and the work of the commission cost an estimated €82 million. The redress scheme which was established in 2002 accounts for the largest element of the cost, at an estimated €1.25 billion. The original forecasted cost of the scheme was €250 million. My predecessor reported on deficiencies in the methods used by the Department in arriving at that estimate. By the end of 2015, the redress board had made awards totalling €970 million to 15,579 claimants, an average award of €62,250. Some 85% of the awards were at or below a level of €100,000 per person. The highest individual award made was €300,000. By 31 December 2015, the redress board had approved legal cost payments of €193 million to 991 legal firms in respect of 15,345 applications. A total of 17 legal firms were paid between €1 million and €5 million each, while seven were paid amounts between €5 million and €19 million each.

Outside of the redress scheme, a range of other supports were put in place by State bodies andthe religious congregations to assist the former residents of the institutions. The overall spend on health, housing, educational and counselling services is estimated at €176 million. Since late 2013, the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Board, better known as Caranua, has been providing support services for survivors paid for from cash contributed voluntarily by the religious congregations following the publication of the Ryan report in 2009. Government policy was to pursue the sharing of the cost of redress on a 50:50 basis between the State and the 18 religious congregations. The indemnity agreement signed in 2002 committed the congregations to contributing to the costs by transferring property, cash and other resources, totalling €128 million. Relative to the Department's then forecasted expenditure figure of €250 million, this would have represented an approximate share of 50:50, but the congregations' legal commitment was capped under the terms of the agreement. In the event, property assets comprehended by the indemnity agreement, valued at around €21 million, still remained to be transferred to the State at the end of 2015. Following publication of the Ryan report in 2009, the congregations offered additional cash and property, valued at €353 million, but this was not legally enforceable. The combined offer was revised down to €226 million in September 2015. Six years after the publication of the Ryan report, only €85 million, or 38% of the remaining offer of €226 million, had been received by the State.

To date, the congregations' combined commitments and offers represent the equivalent of about 23% of the overall expenditure in responding to child abuse in the institutions. Contributions actually received from the congregations up to the end of 2015 represented about 13% of the cost. Some further assets and cash were received during 2016 and the Accounting Officer will be able to brief the committee on the current position.

My report includes a number of process recommendations which have been accepted by the Department and the Department of Public Expenditure and Reform. They include a recommendation that the Department should ensure a formal evaluation is carried out of the redress scheme so as to learn lessons for the future and assess the effectiveness of the supports provided for former residents and their dependants. I am glad to note the agreement of the two Accounting Officers to these recommendations.