An Oireachtas committee will today hear submissions from groups representing people allegedly abused in religious institutions. They will also hear submissions from the Conference of Bishops.
One of the groups, Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA), is expected to argue that compensation should not be limited to those abused in residential homes, but also to those ill-treated as day pupils.
However, a second group, Right to Place, which represents many former residential students, strongly opposes this, believing that it could delay compensation for years. The groups are also expected to push the Oireachtas Committee for Education and Science to push for a change in the rule that prevents victims from appealing awards to the High Court.
An appeals body of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse will review complaints. "This is not acceptable to them," said the committee chairman, Fine Gael TD Mr Simon Coveney.
The compensation body, which will be set up by the Residential Institutions Redress Bill, will be able to make ex-gratia payments, but it will not be able to find fault or liability.
Victims are also unhappy with the commission's proposed compensation rules, which will award damages according to a number of pre-determined categories.
"They want an individual approach taken in all cases, where compensation would depend on the scale of the abuse suffered and the impact that it had," said Mr Coveney.
