IRELAND
One in Four
by Paul O’Brien of The Irish Examiner
THE bill for compensating victims of abuse in State-run residential institutions could be €120 million more than the Government had first anticipated, the latest estimate shows.
The Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB), the independent body set up in 2002 to compensate those abused as children in State-run institutions, will stop accepting applications in December.
The RIRB expects to have received between 7,500 and 8,000 applications by that time, and believes the total compensation bill, including legal and administration costs, will reach between €680m and €730m.
Prior to the RIRB’s establishment, the Department of Education had estimated the bill for compensation would reach €508m, rising to €610m when legal and administration costs were factored in.