An abuse survivor says a compensation scheme could exclude many victims because of the way it was set up.

Some 210 cases of alleged child sex abuse in schools are eligible for compensation under a Department of Education Scheme.

Each person will be entitled to a maximum of €84,000.

But survivors can only qualify for compensation where it is shown that the school authorities failed to take action to a complaint of abuse.

The scheme will apply only to abuse committed before 1991, after which the State introduced child protection measures.

The redress scheme follows a landmark case taken by Louise O'Keeffe after she suffered abuse in a west Cork primary school in the 1970s.

After a 20 year legal battle, Ms O'Keeffe took won her case at the European Court of Human Rights in January 2014.

Yesterday marked the deadline for which the State had to finalise its offer to others.

"They are making it compulsory and really putting the onus on very young children to have made a complaint that there was sexual abuse in order that others weren't abused - they are not taking that onus and responsibility on themselves - that they should have put protection in place and did not do it" Ms O'Keeffe told Newstalk Breakfast.

She says she is worried that this will see some people excluded from the scheme.

"It's even clear from the update(d) responce that the State submitted to Europe - that of the existing claims that are still pending in court, there are 35 cases still pending, and they have made only seven settlement offers to those".

"That means 80% of the cases are not relevant for this settlement offer, according to the State", she added.

Listen to her full interview below: