The IHREC said that it was important to remember that the State also bore "significant responsibility" for the abuse suffered historically by children in schools.
"This has been clear, as a matter of law, since 2014, when Louise O'Keeffe won her case before the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg," it said.
The European court ruled that the State had been aware of the level of sexual crime by adults against minors in Ireland.
IHREC said the State should, therefore, have been aware of potential risks to children’s safety, when it "relinquished control of the education of the vast majority of young children to religious denominations".
The court held that the State had an obligation to protect children in State-funded schools.
It noted that until 1991, for primary schools, and 1992, for secondary schools, there had been no appropriate child protection framework put in place by the State in Irish schools.
Accordingly, it ruled the State had breached Ms O’Keeffe’s rights under the European Convention of Human Rights.
Ms O’Keeffe was awarded €84,000 in compensation from the State.
Therefore, IHREC has said, without prejudice to the responsibility of individuals or religious orders to survivors, it has been clear for the past decade that the State has had a legal responsibility to make redress to abuse survivors for its own failure to protect children in schools by failing to put child protection measures in place until the early 1990s.
However, it added that despite this clear legal obligation, the State had persistently failed to put in place a fair and adequate redress scheme as it is required to do by law.
"This failure by the State has forced individual survivors to endure further delays, retraumatisation and the risk of significant financial exposure, by having to commence High Court proceedings to vindicate their rights," it said.
"Recently, in June 2024, the State settled 10 such cases as the matter was finally about to go to hearing, paying each survivor the redress payment of €84,000 that they are entitled," it added.
IHREC said it raised the issue of "significant barriers" faced by survivors of historic child sexual abuse in schools in Ireland in accessing redress for the State’s failure to protect their rights on multiple occasions, most recently at the Council of Europe in May also attended by Ms O’Keeffe.
The commission noted comments from the Government that it had "a moral obligation" to ensure justice for abuse survivors and redress".
It said that for the past 10 years, there has been a court judgment requiring the State to accept its part in the responsibility for failing to protect children from sexual abuse in schools over decades and to provide redress in line with its legal obligations under the O’Keeffe judgment.
It noted and welcomed that the Scoping Inquiry report included other recommendations regarding other forms of restorative justice for abuse survivors.
"Any restorative justice programme must be available to all survivors and must not repeat the State’s past mistake imposing arbitrary and discriminatory pre-conditions on access," it said.
"Any such system must cover all schools, primary and secondary, whether run by religious orders or lay teachers," it added.