Annual accounts for swimming's all-Ireland governing body show that it paid 34,178 for PR services in 2006, compared to 18,185 spent on child welfare. The PR bill had almost trebled from 12,401 in 2005.

The organisation only appointed a fulltime national children's officer last January, nearly 10 years after former coach Derry O'Rourke was convicted on 29 sample charges of child sexual abuse in December 1997. The women he abused have not received any compensation from the organisation, which held its AGM in Dublin yesterday.

When the expenditure discrepancy was pointed out to Padraig McKeon, managing director of Drury Communications which represents Swim Ireland, he replied: "A lot of work done on child welfare is not paid-for work. People on the ground have been trained and are responsible individuals working on a voluntary basis. If you want to put a value on that, it would be very substantial."

The body's AGM was yesterday told that its legal advice was that "the claims against Swim Ireland can be successfully defended. However, the board believes that it is in everyone's best interests to try and resolve these cases."

An explanatory note in the body's annual accounts states that Swim Ireland's solicitors, Matheson Ormsby Prentice, "are not, at present, in a position to assess what, if any, liability may attach" to the organisation.

"If the High Court were to find the company liable for any of the claims, either in whole or in part, then liability could be significant, both in respect of potential damages which could be awarded, together with legal fees, " it warns.

The organisation's 12,776 members, including some victims, are paying a voluntary 10 levy to offset the costs of the legal cases. Swim Ireland is suing Royal & Sun Alliance, its insurers since March 1982 until February 2006, for refusing to indemnify it against the victims' claims.

As Swim Ireland's annual funding by the Sports Council increased for the second consecutive year in 2006, rising to 287,456, it hired Drury Communications to handle its PR, replacing O'Herlihy Communications, last September.

While lawyers for 15 of the plaintiffs will apply to the High Court next month for a trial date, behind-the-scenes negotiations are continuing in an effort to settle the decade-old compensation cases. The biggest stumbling block has been the failure to participate in the talks by one of the respondents in the proceedings, the King's Hospital school in west Dublin, which housed the swimming club where O'Rourke committed many of the assaults. The plaintiffs' solicitors, Lavelle Coleman, obtained a judgment against O'Rourke after he failed to enter an appearance in the case and damages will be determined at the trial.