"State May Ask Church for Cash Payment Of €32m
Added on November 13, 2008May we refer to the article "
It's clear that under the "Secret Deal" negotiated by the former Education Minister Michael Woods, and the Religious Orders, which between them were responsible for the physical and sexual assault of thousands of children over a period of 75 years, the Religious Orders will pay only €128m of the total compensation bill - itself now expected to reach over €1. 1 billion.
The rest of the aforementioned figure is paid by the taxpayer and many firms of Solicitors and Barristers will be paid up to €250m in costs by the time the Redress Board compensation is finished.
However, it should be quite clear to the Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe that there has always been great difficulty, even for the State, in estimating the value of lands belonging to the religious orders, particularly the assets of the Christian Brothers, who have sold off large tracts of land and like the other religious orders, they have invested in shares.
The Department of Education know quite well that there is a web of ownerships and trusts attached to the properties - and many of the ownerships are shared between the religious orders and school parents' bodies.
If you take lands belonging to operative schools, you could have legal actions from parents and boards.
Many of the 18 orders' property assets are held by trusts and, since they are charitable organisations, they do not have to file accounts or tax returns, so they can' hide their wealth and assets.
Although both the Religious Orders and the Government have persistently refused to reveal what properties are involved, the Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe overlooks his failure to understand that little if any of the land being transferred to the State in relation to the Redress Board compensation bill can be turned into hard cash.
Albert King.