The deputy director of the State Claims Agency, Ciaran Breen, confirmed to the Sunday Tribune that 150 such sexual abuse claims had been lodged with the agency before abuse victim Louise O'Keeffe lost her action in the High Court against education minister Mary Hanafin earlier this year. "Since then around 15 claims have been withdrawn, " said Breen, leaving over 130 cases still pending.

O'Keeffe, 42, took an action against the teacher who sexually abused her, Leo Hickey, and was awarded 305,000 last week. But she lost a separate claim against the minister when the High Court ruled that school management is responsible for the actions of teachers, not the minister. Costs were awarded against O'Keeffe which she said ran to 500,000.

O'Keeffe said last week that the state was aggressively pursuing her for these costs and that she feared that she would lose her house and that she and her two children would be put out on the street. But Breen strongly denied this.

"There never was and there never would be any question of the state forcing somebody to sell their house, " he said, adding that this was made very clear to O'Keeffe's solicitors when the Agency opened confidential negotiations on the issue of costs.

"We proposed a sensitive and measured arrangement on costs, " said Breen, who added that the legal costs were less than half the 500,000 claimed.

However, O'Keeffe's solicitors instead opted to appeal to the Supreme Court - a move which puts a stay on the issue of costs for now but means that legal costs will soar for both O'Keeffe and the state.

Breen said that while the High Court had stated quite clearly that the minister was not responsible for abuse perpetrated by teachers, the state is still faced with an enormous legal bill fighting these claims.

"We have to protect taxpayers' money, but we are not heartless, " he said.