Up to 200 residential institutions may be included in the State's compensation scheme for child abuse victims in an extension of the scope of the redress board.
The Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, said yesterday he was considering extending the number of institutions whose former residents can claim compensation from the State.
Mr Dempsey said such an extension was provided for in the Residential Institutions Redress Act. Most institutions not included in the act at the moment are State institutions rather than religious-run ones, the Minister told Newstalk 106FM yesterday.
He said: "I have heard that there could be up to in total - including the ones in the Act already - a total of up to 200 \ but I'm not sure of that.
"Some of those would be very, very small but the scope of the Act is to cover all of the institutions and the provision in the Act was that some would be added later."
The Government has been criticised for its deal with religious orders setting the limit of their contribution to the scheme at €128 million in return for an indemnity against future legal claims. This amount was just above the minimum recommended by officials in the Department of Finance, according to files recently released under the Freedom of Information Act.
There has also been growing concern in the Government recently that it may have seriously underestimated the possible cost to the State of the compensation scheme, under which between 3,000 and 5,000 people are expected to make claims.
Meanwhile, the Taoiseach has been criticised by the Green Party's education spokesman, Mr Paul Gogarty, for suggesting that the scale of abuse may be exaggerated.
The Taoiseach was attacked last week by Opposition members after he said he did not believe thousands of people had suffered abuse over the years.
A Government spokeswoman subsequently said Mr Ahern was merely seeking to correct unrealistic figures cited by some critics.