A redress scheme is one of the recommendations in the report of the scoping inquiry set up to examine historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders, published earlier this week.

However, the rights watchdog said it has been clear since the European Court of Human Rights ruling in O’Keeffe v. Ireland a decade ago that the State has a legal responsibility to make redress to abuse survivors.

The State failed to protect children in schools by failing to put child protection measures in place until the early 1990s, the ECtHR found.

Despite the ruling, the Commission says the State has persistently failed to put in place a fair and adequate redress scheme as it is required to do by law.

In June, the State settled 10 cases brought in the High Court by survivors of child sexual abuse who were excluded from an earlier redress scheme.

Deirdre Malone, Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission director, said: “One instance of abuse recorded against a child is one too many. This report details systemic abuse of the worst kind, suffered by thousands of children, over decades.

“A fair, accessible and inclusive redress scheme, established immediately, is the minimum appropriate response that human dignity — and law — require.”