The deal struck by the Government with religious 18 congregations to compensate victims of abuse in orphanages and industrial schools was "profligate" and "irresponsible", the Labour Party said today.
New figures yesterday showed the final bill for compensating successful applicants to the Residential Institutions Redress Board could reach €1.35 billion - between four and five times the original estimate.
Labour leader Pat Rabbitte said the public was still waiting for an explanation for why the deal with the religious congregations was agreed in secret by then minister for education Michael Woods on his last day as a minister.
The Attorney General was not involved in the final agreement to accept land and cash worth €127 million from the congregations as their contribution to the compensation fund. It was envisaged at the time that the figure would represent around 50 per cent of the entire liability.
However, in 2003 the Comptroller and Auditor General John Purcell, estimated the compensation bill would be in the region of €900 million. Yesterday he told the Public Accounts Committee the figure could be as high as €1.35 billion.
"The indemnity agreement negotiated by the Ahern government with the religious institutions was one of the most reckless, profligate and irresponsible deals agreed by any Irish government," Mr Rabbitte said. He ridiculed the Taoiseach for saying in 2003 that C&AG's 2003 figures would "not be anything like" Mr Purcell's estimate.
"Now we find that the €127 million committed by the religious congregations . . . is likely to represent less than one tenth of the final cost.
"As a result of reckless and cowardly behaviour of this government, the taxpayers have been left with a huge bill for a debt that should, at very least, have been shared equally between the State and the religious congregations," Mr Rabbitte said.