I want to raise a legacy issue which affects all parties that have been in government over the past several years. I am not doing this in any political point scoring manner and I accept previous Governments were equally culpable in this regard. It is about the legacy issue of how the State dealt with child sex abuse in national day schools. The State fought against any idea of culpability for that until Louise O'Keeffe won a major breakthrough case in the European Court of Human Rights in 2014. The Taoiseach will be familiar with that case.

The State's response to that European Court of Human Rights judgment has been a significant failure, leaving much to be desired, however. The State introduced an ex gratia payment scheme but, in many respects, the limits were too low. The prior complaint expedient that was inserted effectively debarred many from seeking justice. Only seven settlements so far have been reached out of 210 cases, with the remainder still going through the courts.

Recently, I met a victim who has been involved in this situation for some time. He was the victim of horrific abuse at the hands of a Christian Brother in a school. The abuser was subsequently convicted in this and other abuse cases. There are a number of other victims out there at the moment. The man in question has been up and down through the courts and the religious orders but has received no compensation or a cent from the State.

Many of the people in question discontinued their cases when the Supreme Court ruled the State did not have an obligation. Recently, the High Court stated it will not uphold their rights to pursue their cases again in law. In his ruling, Mr. Justice Max Barrett said, "[But] the Irish people, with their great and proper sense of justice, may well conclude that the path of rightness in this matter should lead ultimately to a different end". He added, "As an Irishman, I would respectfully agree".

Essentially what has gone on is unacceptable. After the Ryan report, the Taoiseach then said the response of the State should "draw together all the generosity, sensitivity and compassion that should have been shown to survivors when they were children". He went on to say Ireland should become a world leader in reconciliation and reparation. According to the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, in a parliamentary reply, there are 210 cases. By any objective standard, that is a finite number. Either through the criminal injuries tribunal or some other method, I implore the Taoiseach - I am willing to be open and responsive - to get a mechanism to ensure the victim I met, as well as others, will be properly and duly responded to by the State.

I know the Deputy has raised this out of a sense of seriousness because it is ultimately the most personally invasive and sensitive issue which could arise. I remember meeting Louise O'Keeffe with the then Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Jan O'Sullivan. There was a huge file on the case, leaving aside her courage in pursuing her case in the European court.

I do not know how many victims of sexual abuse there have been over the years in the primary school system. It is no more than the secondary school system, I assume. We had the redress scheme, the case of all the Magdalenes - not that there was sexual abuse in the vast majority of cases - and the mother and baby home report which will come before the Minister for Children and Youth Affairs. We will have to see what that means.

I cannot recall all the details of the file in this case. Deputy Micheál Martin's asked if something can be done about this. I have no idea of the scale of what might be involved. I need to read the detail of the file and the legal outcomes.

People who were abused have to live with that for all of their lives. It is a horrific issue to have to contend with every waking moment. I do not want to go beyond that. To commit to something that I do not have the full facts or details about would not be appropriate on the floor of the Dáil. The sexual abuse of children is a horrific crime. Those who perpetrate such crimes, if they are still around, should be brought before justice. To go back the distance involved here would present an enormous scale and challenge. Deputy Micheál Martin has made a point. I will have to look at the scale of what might be involved to answer his question on whether anything might be possible. I do not want to give a commitment without focussing on the potential scale of what is involved.

In July 2016 on Leaders' Questions, the Minister for Education and Skills, Deputy Richard Bruton, quoted a figure of 210 victims whose cases are going through the courts. There is a sense there is a finite number which can be dealt with. As late as this summer, some of these victims were threatened with legal costs. From the victims' perspective, the State is adversarial the whole way through, even where convictions have been secured against the abusers. By any objective yardstick or analysis of it, particularly given that a 17-judge European court made it clear the State was liable, there is a sense the State is welching on its liability in trying to circumvent it. It is not being holistic, generous or following through in the spirit which most Members would have thought would have been the order of the day.

I know the Taoiseach is very busy, but I am raising this in a non-political way. Every Member will agree we need to look afresh at the cases involved and we, as a State, should be approaching this far differently than we have been. The State has been too punitive and too adversarial against the individuals concerned. The individuals in question have been to hell and back.

Deputy Micheál Martin mentioned seven out of 210 cases have been settled. That is 210 cases before the courts. However, we have no idea of the numbers who might wish to come forward to say they were sexually abused in school X or Y by teacher or person X or Y. We have no idea of the scale of that.

When the State dealt with the Louise O'Keeffe case on 28 January 2014, when the judgment was issued, it made awards both in respect of pecuniary and non-pecuniary damages, costs and expenses. It also agreed in December 2014 that out-of-court settlements will be offered to those extant cases of school child sexual abuse being brought against the State where the cases came within the terms of the European Court of Human Rights judgment and satisfied the Statute of Limitations. In that regard, the State Claims Agency, which manages such cases on behalf of the State, has made settlement offers which have been accepted in six cases. In July 2015, the Government approved proposals to offer ex gratia payments of up to a maximum of €84,000 to those who initiated legal proceedings in such cases against the State, but who subsequently discontinued their claims against the State and where, similarly, the circumstances of the claims came within the terms of the European Court of Human Rights judgment, and where the claims were not statute barred prior to the proceedings being discontinued. I will follow through on the Deputy's question.