A scoping report on historical abuse at boarding and day schools run by religious orders is understood to recommend a statutory inquiry be set up to examine the sexual abuse of potentially thousands of children.
The leaders of the Government parties discussed the issue on Tuesday night with the Minister for Education Norma Foley, whose department commissioned the scoping report by senior counsel Mary O’Toole last year.
The report, which runs to more than 700 pages, was expected to be discussed by the Cabinet on Wednesday but that was postponed, three people familiar with the issue said. It is expected that officials will continue to work on a plan for publication of the report, and to work with survivors of abuse.
It is likely to be approved by the Cabinet and published in September, after which a statutory inquiry is expected to be established.
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Once an inquiry has been concluded, it is likely that a redress scheme, to be funded at least in part by contributions from the religious order, will be established.
The scoping inquiry was instituted last year by Ms Foley after allegations of sexual abuse at Blackrock College in Dublin were made by a number of past pupils.
The allegations first emerged when two brothers, David and Mark Ryan, spoke publicly of being sexually abused by priests at Blackrock College and its affiliate junior school, Willow Park. Both schools were run by the Spiritan congregation, formerly the Holy Ghost Fathers.
The brothers first spoke about being sexually abused as boys in the south Dublin secondary school in an RTÉ radio documentary, Blackrock Boys, in 2022. They discovered each other’s abuse only in 2002, many years after it took place. Mark Ryan died last year in London after suffering a suspected heart attack.
The documentary led to a wave of revelations and hundreds of survivors reporting they were also abused as boys in schools run by the Spiritans, as well as other congregations who ran day and boarding schools in the past.
It later emerged that more than 140 people reported incidences of child sexual abuse involving 18 abusers to gardaí investigating such allegations at the schools in south Dublin.
The scoping inquiry was set up by the Department of Education to advise the Government on the nature of the issue and the possible next steps. It was broadened to include allegations of abuse in religious-run boarding and day schools, and received more than 200 submissions. It is understood the report features schools runs by many different religious orders.
The report was delivered to Ms Foley in early June. It is understood it has estimated that there may be thousands of cases of sexual abuse in the schools.
Ms Foley and her officials have been working on proposals which will be heavily influenced by the wishes of survivors of abuse in the schools.
The terms of reference for the scoping exercise specifically required that Ms O’Toole, in making recommendations to the Government, should have regard to “alignment with outcomes sought by survivors of historical sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders”. It says this should be “informed by the survivor engagement process” which has been part of the scoping inquiry’s work.
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