The Taoiseach has rejected the assessment by the Comptroller and Auditor General, the State's financial watchdog, that taxpayers' potential liability in compensation for victims of abuse could be up to €1.04 billion.
"I don't know what the final figure is," Mr Ahern told the Dáil. "Our view is that it will not be anything like what the eminent Comptroller and Auditor General has said. We still believe it will be far smaller than that," he said following the publication of the annual report of the CAG, Mr John Purcell which looked at the indemnity deal done with the religious congregations who would pay €128 million.
During sharp exchanges on the Dial's first day back after the summer recess, Labour leader, Mr Pat Rabbitte said the report was a "most serious indictment of a scandalously reckless, negligent, profligate deal entered into in the name of the Irish taxpayer".
He said it was "disgraceful" for the Taoiseach to dismiss the CAG's findings "as if it was some unfounded charge". Mr Purcell's assessment of the liability was between €869 million and €1.04 billion.
Raising the issue during Opposition leaders' questions, Mr Rabbitte referred to the revelation in the report that when the deal was being negotiated the Minister for Justice, Mr McDowell, then Attorney General, was excluded from the negotiations and the Minister for Education, Dr Michael Woods refused to answer his letters.
Later when the deal was being concluded, Mr McDowell was not available because he was out canvassing. "Ironically he was seeking to stop you (Mr Ahern) spending €1,000 million building a football stadium when there was a deal being concluded for €1,000 million in his own office and he wasn't there."
Mr Ahern insisted however, that the deal was a "sensible way forward". It would not be known for at least another two years, how many people would be involved in the compensation scheme.
Any Taoiseach who would say that €128 million was a "sensible way forward" in a deal that the CAG estimates would be one billion "doesn't deserve to be in your position", Mr Rabbitte told Mr Ahern.
"You sent out Woodsie to do a secret indemnity that was never debated in this House and you got Woodsie to do the deal and you signed off on it and you hoped it would never come back to haunt you." Rejecting the accusation, Mr Ahern said it was a "myth" that congregations would have had a whole lot of money to pay compensation. "The idea that you could go around this country taking schools and homes and institutions and selling them to put money into this one is not fact." Stressing that the State had to bear a significant burden of the liability under civil liability legislation, the Taoiseach stated that even if the State's liability was only 1 per cent, the State would have to pay the full costs and then claim back from the wrongdoers.
"The Government was committed to giving redress to victims of abuse," he said.
Mr Rabbitte and others wanted to "confuse" that somehow the State was unwise in entering into the indemnity agreement. This was "without foundation" and the agreement was "in the best interests of the State".
The State had to bear a significant proportion of responsibility towards victims. Under civil liability legislation "if the State was 1 per cent responsible, and it was far more than that, the State would have to pay and then seek to recover from the wrongdoers".
Mr Rabbitte said when it went to Cabinet on the last day of the last Government "they knew that it was inadequate then". Mr McDowell as AG, said it was a deficient deal and there was no mechanism to deal with rising numbers, Mr Rabbitte said.
