A report into the treatment of children in residential care in Ireland has listed a catalogue of “endemic” sexual and physical abuse by members of religious orders, carried out with the full knowledge of their congregations.

The long-awaited Child Abuse Commission report was issued in August, bringing to an end a decade-long investigation into industrial schools, institutions for disabled children, day schools, orphanages and reformatories. The final report reveals a staggering scale of abuse suffered from 1936 to the present day, which was ignored by the authorities.

“The deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the congregations compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the schools,” said the report, following the inquiry led by Justice Sean Ryan. “The system of inspection by the Department of Education was fundamentally flawed and incapable of being effective.”

It also found that the system of funding through per capita grants led to demands for children to be committed to Industrial Schools so that they would remain open. The priority in managing cases of sexual abuse was to prevent public disclosure.

“Contrary to the Congregations’ claims that the recidivist nature of sexual offending was not understood, it is clear from the documented cases that they were aware of the propensity for abusers to re-abuse,’ said the report. “The risk, however, was seen by the Congregations in terms of the potential for scandal and bad publicity should the abuse be disclosed. The danger to children was not taken into account.”

Numerous religious orders were investigated over the course of the commission’s work, but complaints were most frequently made against the Sisters of Mercy who supervised girls and the Christian Brothers, the major provider of schools for boys aged 10 to 16.

Among the institutions investigated is the Daingean Reformatory in County Offaly, managed by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, where the physical abuse of boys was described as extreme. “Floggings, which were ritualised beatings, should not have been tolerated in any institution and they were inflicted even for minor transgressions,” said the report, adding that Daingean was a cruel and anarchic institution. “It was run by gangs of boys who imposed their rules on others and the supervision by the religious brothers and priests was minimal and ineffectual.”

At the Sisters of Mercy-run Goldenbridge Industrial School in Dublin, a rosary-bead production line was operated. “This industry was conducted in a way that imposed impossible standards on children and caused great suffering to many of them,” said the report. “It was a school that was characterised by a regime of extreme drudgery, both in terms of the rosary-bead making and the daily workload of the children.”

More than 2,000 witnesses gave evidence about abuse suffered at 216 institutions at the hands of 800 individuals. Half the witnesses spoke of sexual abuse and more than 90 per cent of physical abuse, while there were also frequent accounts of neglect and emotional abuse.

A further report, into the handling of cases of abuse by the Dublin Archdiocese, is due to be published within weeks.