Róisín Shortall (Dublin North West, Social Democrats)
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189. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills the status of claims against the State by persons who were abused in day schools; the number of cases which have been settled and which are pending; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [44423/15]

Jan O'Sullivan (Limerick City, Labour)
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In cases where the Department was in possession of relevant information which, if acted upon, could have prevented abuse occurring, the State will admit that it has some liability and will enter into settlement negotiations. The only such cases to date number 13 in total. In each such case, the State has accepted partial liability and accordingly paid a specific proportion of the settlement amount with the relevant religious congregation paying the remaining proportion.

Separate to the above cases, in its response to the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) judgment, the Government agreed in December 2014 that out of court settlements be offered in those extant cases of school child sexual abuse being brought against the State where the cases come within the terms of the ECtHR judgment and satisfy the Statute of Limitations. In this regard, the State Claims Agency (SCA) has made settlement offers which have been accepted in 6 cases and the SCA has written to the other 28 litigants advising that the circumstances do not appear to come within the parameters of the judgement and inviting them to revert with any contrary evidence. Where a litigant does not accept the offer in settlement of his/her case or where the SCA is not satisfied that the case comes within the terms of the judgment, the case will proceed before the domestic Courts.

Subsequently, in July of this year, the Government approved proposals to offer ex-gratia payments up to a maximum of €84,000 to those who initiated legal proceedings in cases of school child sexual abuse against the State but who subsequently discontinued their claims against the State where, similarly, the circumstances of the claims come within the terms of the ECtHR judgment and where the claims were not statute barred prior to the proceedings being discontinued. It is not possible to assess at this stage how many cases in this category will satisfy these criteria. Persons who believe that their cases come within the criteria can contact the SCA and provide supporting evidence. Where there is a disagreement between the SCA and the individual as to whether their circumstances come within the terms of the ECtHR judgment, provision will be made for the application to be reviewed by an independent assessor. In offering these settlements, the State will not be covering the liabilities of the perpetrators, school managers or patrons or other co-defendants.

To be eligible for the above settlement or payment arrangements, cases must involve sexual abuse of a school child by a primary or second level school employee in respect of whom there was a prior complaint of sexual abuse to a school authority (including an authority of a school in which the teacher had previously taught), prior to the issue of the Department of Education guidelines to primary and post-primary schools in 1991 and 1992 respectively. This rationale has been adopted as it is the basis of the ECtHR judgment.

To date over 140 new claims of school child sexual abuse have been notified to the SCA.