Department under fire over abuse claims bill

THE Department of Education will be criticised again in the coming weeks for significantly underestimating the bill for compensating thousands of abuse victims.

When the issue of redressing those abused in industrial and reformatory schools first arose, the department estimated there would be 2,000 cases at a total cost of €254 million.

In fact, the Residential Institutions Redress Board, the body established in 2002 to compensate those abused in State-regulated institutions, had 5,071 cases on its books by Christmas.