Church is warned on ?7.5m shortfall in damages fund

Friday March 11th 2005

THE final sum of ?7.5m owed by religious orders to the State under the redress board deal over child sex abuse is still outstanding, the Department of Education has confirmed.

The Department has asked for the amount in cash after it refused to accept any more offers of property by the orders on a variety of legal and practical grounds.

The confirmation was given as the Department defended its part in the negotiations leading to the setting up of the child abuse compensation fund by the State.

A report into the agreement published by the Dail's Public Accounts Committee on Wednesday, criticised civil servants for badly underestimating the likely final cost of the redress scheme, and for not determining how much the orders were able to contribute towards it.

A statement from the Department of Education indicated that it would probably have been difficult, if not impossible, to obtain any more money from the orders than the ?128m finally agreed.

The 18 orders that ran most of the residential institutions believed that if they fought every abuse claim in court the most they would have had to pay out was in the region of ?50-?60m.

Under the agreement the orders are contributing the ?128m in the form of cash and property. The orders have paid all of the cash side of the settlement, and ?71.2m worth of property.

However, this leaves a shortfall on ?7.5m on the property side. The Department of Education has refused 20 different properties offered to it by the State, and has now asked the orders to pay the balance in cash.

David Quinn
Religious Affairs Correspondent

? Irish Independent