Representatives of former residents of industrial schools have claimed the Department of Education ignored their views on Laffoy Commission reform.
Calling for the resignation of the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, Ms Christine Buckley of the Aislinn centre said the Department had promised further consultations before a decision was made on the future of the commission.
Ms Buckley said survivor groups held one meeting with the Minister and a further two with his officials, in which they outlined their proposals.
At the meetings they also stated their vehement opposition to proposals by the Department to select a cross-section of complaints for investigation.
In January Mr Dempsey met representatives of four survivor groups.
"We said to him that he should allow Mary Laffoy to continue her work independently and to choose two judges to help speed up the process," she said.
The representatives said the number of cases before the investigation committee could be reduced, since many who were going before the Redress Board for compensation did not want to repeat the ordeal of giving evidence before another committee.
Therefore, they would be likely to transfer to the non-adversarial confidential committee.
"In the follow-up meetings in March and last month, they were still talking about reduction of costs, and put forward this idea of picking sample cases of allegations for examination.
"I said I would scream from the top of my voice if they did that."
Ms Buckley says the survivor groups were asked to keep the discussions confidential. A further meeting was scheduled for September 15th. "When the Minister went on radio yesterday, it was like a bombshell," she said.