A commission is set to investigate sexual abuse at Irish schools run by Catholic religious orders after a preliminary 'Scoping Inquiry' found almost 2,400 allegations of historical abuse, the Irish Government said.

Education Minister Norma Foley described the preliminary investigation's report as a "harrowing document, containing some of the most appalling accounts of sexual abuse". 

The inquiry found there were 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across all parts of the country between the years 1927 to 2013. More than half of the people accused of abuse are now dead.

Most of these allegations were reported by 42 orders which formerly ran schools or still do across Ireland, and 17 special schools also recorded 590 allegations involving 190 alleged abusers.

Bishop Kevin Doran, Bishop of Elphin and Apostolic Administrator of the Diocese of Achonry, commented on the report:

“I am conscious that, behind every paragraph is the experience of real people who, as children, suffered abuse and violence in a place where they should have been safe. . .  The tragedy of the report is not simply that there are so many of them, but that so many of them had to carry their experience alone for so many years, before they felt sufficiently free to tell someone else.”