A compensation tribunal for victims of institutional child abuse could cost the State up to £100 million, according to some official estimates.
Survivors' groups have broadly welcomed the announcement of the setting up of a compensatory body. However, a member of an ad-hoc group of solicitors representing some 1,200 victims last night criticised it as "meanspirited".
Mr James MacGuill said the scheme announced by the Minister for Education and Science, Dr Woods, was generous at face value. However, he was critical of the decision to allow only people who were resident in schools or institutions to qualify for compensation.
This means that day pupils in schools would be excluded, a distinction which Mr MacGuill said was "a terribly mean-spirited, cost-cutting exercise".
Mr MacGuill said the terms of reference of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse did not make a distinction between day pupils and boarders or residents in schools or institutions.
"In fact some of the perpetrators of the worst abuse preyed on victims who were day pupils, and they are now serving sentences for their crimes," he added.
The ad-hoc group of solicitors held a meeting about the proposed tribunal last night and expressed serious concerns about the introduction of "a new limitation to exclude abused people who were day pupils", Mr MacGuill said.
This group had effectively threatened to boycott the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse earlier this year until their clients' demands for a compensation scheme were conceded.
It has been difficult for Government officials to accurately quantify the eventual scale of the payout the State will make through the tribunal to victims of abuse in State-run institutions and religious schools. Since the 1930s, some 20,000 people passed through industrial and reformatory schools in the State.
It is understood that about 1,000 victims have requested forms for the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, which began its confidential hearings last month. About 750 survivors have initiated High Court litigation.
Government officials expect that more victims would be willing to go before a confidential tribunal rather than face the ordeal of an adversarial court hearing.
Legal sources estimate that the tribunal awards are likely to range from between £5,000 and £30,000 for survivors of physical abuse to more than £100,000 for exceptional cases of severe emotional and physical trauma.
Recent out-of-court awards to victims of sexual and physical abuse in religious-run institutions or by clerics have ranged between £30,000 and about £75,000.
According to one official estimate, about 2,000 victims could make a claim before the tribunal. At an average cost of £50,000 per claimant, the State could be facing a total bill of £100 million.
The tribunal will be entirely unconnected to the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, and people will have to testify separately before both bodies.
Government officials are expected to work out the details of how the tribunal will operate over the next few weeks, including drawing up final proposals for draft legislation.
It is expected the tribunal will be operating by next summer, and will run in tandem with the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, chaired by Ms Justice Laffoy. It will be chaired by a judge and include a panel of experts, such as psychiatrists and psychologists.
The Laffoy Commission was set up following public outrage over abuses in State institutions and religious-run schools revealed in the States of Fear documentary series last year.