At a meeting with abuse survivors in the wake of the Ryan report, Taoiseach Brian Cowen said criminal investigations were continuing into a significant number of people.
He said that those who abused children in church-run schools must be "made amenable to the law" and held to account.
The Taoiseach again apologised to the survivors, represented by eight victims groups, on behalf of the Government for failing to intervene and protect them.
A Government spokeswoman said: "Mr Cowen stressed that those who perpetrated crimes against survivors, no matter how long ago, must be made amenable to the law so that they can be held to account for such crimes."
Together with Justice Minister Dermot Ahern, Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe and Children's Minister Barry Andrews, Mr Cowen said the Government was committed to implementing all of the report's recommendations.
These included erecting a monument to the victims.
The Taoiseach also told those present that Mr Andrews will bring to Government before the end of July a plan on how children should be cared for.
Mr Cowen will hold talks on Thursday with the 18 religious congregations which ran the institutions, where the Government is expected to raise the issue of extra compensation for abuse victims.
The Ryan report documented evidence of abuse from over 1,000 pupils of orphanages, industrial schools and reformatory schools.
© Press Association