More than €6m paid by State for abuse in schools so far

More than €6 million has been paid out in compensation under an ex-gratia scheme for those who sued the State over abuse in a day school, the Government has been told.

The scheme was set up for those who had initiated legal proceedings against the state over abuse and subsequently discontinued their cases after Louise O’Keeffe, who was sexually abused by her teacher in the 1970s, lost her case in the High Court and Supreme Court.

Ms O’Keeffe subsequently won a case in the European Court of Human Rights which found that the State had failed in its obligations to protect her from the abuse she suffered.

The Government is obliged to produce an action plan and submit it to Brussels arising from the ruling. Minister for Education Norma Foley updated her Cabinet colleagues on the plan on Tuesday.

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A spokesman for the Government said the current update of the action plan detailed child protection measures in the Children First Act 2015 and their implementation, the measures in place to support schools to comply with their statutory obligations, and the numbers of claimants under the revised ex-gratia scheme, which was reopened on July 21st last year.

So far, 102 applications have been received and 74 have been approved for the payments of €84,000. This means more than €6.2 million has been paid out. Successful claimants are also eligible for the payment of up to €4,000 in legal costs related to the application.

Some 28 applications have been rejected. The updated draft of the Government Action Plan is due to be published shortly after it is submitted on June 8th, a spokesman said.

Cabinet also heard that the HSE has agreed to purchase a supply of smallpox vaccine for use in combating monkeypox.

The Government was also told that the Health and Safety Authority, which is due to produce its annual report, carried out over 8,500 workplace inspections and investigations across all sectors in 2021 - 7,000 of which related to Covid-19 work safety protocols. It also handled more than 2,400 Covid related protocol complaints.

A total of 51,000 inspections were carried out by the HSA and other State bodies in the period May 2020-January 2022. The HSA was given an additional budget allocation in 2021 and 2022 to establish a new occupational health division as part of a longer-term investment in worker health, reducing workplace injuries and illnesses, the spokesman said.

The Cabinet was also updated on exchequer spending to the end of April. Minister for Public Expenditure Michael McGrath told cabinet that overall gross voted expenditure was €25.3 billion to the end of April, which was 0.4 per cent below profile and €1.4 billion, or 5.1 per cent below last year.

The overall balance was a deficit of €1.1 billion, which compared to a deficit of €7.6 billion at the end of April 2021.

Cabinet was also told that a total of 23,894 people fleeing the war in Ukraine have now been accommodated in the State.