Orders ‘must pay fair share of compensation for abuse’

The Church’s commitment to pay compensation to abuse victims “cannot be reneged on”, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has stated.

His comment was made amid a row between the Government and the 18 religious orders who ran residential institutions in the past over their level of contribution to a compensation fund for those who suffered institutional abuse as children.
Last week Ireland’s Comptroller and Auditor General published a new report which showed that the 18 orders have paid 13 per cent of the €1.5bn compensation fund.

The Government believes that an equitable share-out of costs would see a 50-50 division of costs between state and Church.

The Minister for Health, Simon Harris, speaking on RTÉ’s The Week in Politics programme, called on Pope Francis to instruct the 18 religious orders to make a greater financial contribution. “The Pope and religious leaders in this country need to intervene and say to the institutions pay over and pay up,” he said, adding that  the Government would now look at every legal tool at its disposal to ensure the orders pay more of the €1.5bn compensation bill.

In the US, the Taoiseach Enda Kenny warned: “The Church and the congregations should measure up to the responsibility that they accepted here.” He also revealed that he had “referred a number of matters to the Pope when I met with him last year and I would expect the Vatican to respond”.

The Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy, the two orders that ran the largest number of the institutions investigated by the Ryan Commission, defended their contributions. Christian Brothers leader, Br Edmund Garvey, said the Comptroller and Auditor General’s report cited figures from over a year ago and these did not take account of the congregation’s more recent €14m payment. The Sisters of Mercy said they had honoured all their commitments.