The Irish Times – Thursday, July 7, 2011
CHARLIE TAYLOR
A NUMBER of religious congregations have signalled their willingness to meet Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn to discuss redress costs for victims of clerical sexual abuse.
However, the Dominican Order said yesterday it believed it had already made an “appropriate contribution” towards compensation costs. Earlier this week Mr Quinn said the Government intends to ask religious orders to transfer ownership of schools to the State to make up a shortfall in its contribution to the €1.36 billion compensation bill for abuse victims.
Representatives from the Brothers of Charity, the Presentation Brothers and the Christian Brothers all said yesterday they were looking forward to meeting the Minister to discuss their contributions to the redress scheme.
To date the congregations have collectively offered €348.5 million towards the cost of the redress bill. This is just over half the €680 million fee recommended in the Ryan report and equivalent to a quarter of the total cost of the compensation scheme.
The Christian Brothers, which has offered the biggest contribution to redress costs, stressed yesterday that it had provided €161 million, equivalent to 67 per cent of its net resources, towards compensation.
While it signalled its willingness to meet Mr Quinn, the Christian Brothers also reiterated that it no longer owns or manages any primary or secondary schools on the island of Ireland following the transfer of ownership to the Edmund Rice Trust in 2008.
The Dominican Order said it had offered a sufficient contribution to redress costs. “The contribution by the Dominicans was entirely a cash contribution with no property element.
“We believe that the contribution advanced by us to the department was an appropriate sum in the circumstances.”
Other congregations contacted by The Irish Times yesterday refused to respond to Mr Quinns comments, with many saying it would be inappropriate to do so ahead of the proposed meeting.
