Number of people to be interviewed by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child S-xual Abuse: 5000+ (at least an hour of testimony has been allocated for each).

Calls received by the royal commission hotline to date: 1200.

Time of inquiry: at least three years (Justice Peter McClellan today said it was unlikely the government’s 2016 deadline would be met).

Cost of inquiry to date: $22 million.

Cosy of inquiry overall: one estimate at $100 million.

Impact on the thousands of victims groomed, abused and still haunted by the unthinkable crimes committed by so many in churches, community groups, childcare centres and other institutions: priceless.

Stephen Woods, who was abused as a schoolboy in the 1970s, told the ABC he had actively lobbied for a royal commission for 18 years of his life. His time has finally come.