The State, which has been reimbursed only €242m of the €1.5bn it has paid out, should now take only lands and buildings for Community purposes; not paltry cash
By Carolin Zaniewicz and Michael Smith
The Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, also known as the Ryan Commission, was established in 1999. Its goal was to investigate the extent of physical, sexual and emotional abuse of children in institutions such as children’s homes, schools, foster care and hospitals run by Catholic Orders in Ireland from 1936 onwards. The results of this investigation were published on 20 May 2009 in the Ryan Report.
The report detailed “significant levels of abuse” suffered by children, who were placed by the Irish State in residential institutions run by Catholic religious orders. It found that thousands of boys and girls were subject to chronic beatings, sexual abuse and humiliation at the hands of Catholic priests and nuns. The investigations also brought to light that the government had been aware of those abuses happening, yet the “deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the Congregations compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the schools”.
First, Indemnity, Deal
The outcomes of the report shocked the nation; and further controversy followed an indemnity deal signed on 5 June 2002 between then Minister for Education, Michael Woods, and 18 religious orders. It was decided that the contributions of the religious institutions to the bill for the abuse would be capped at a value of €128 million Euro, including originally 64 properties. An indemnity was given by the State against further liability, forcing the remainder of the bill onto the Irish State.
Woods seemed animated by the fact that the congregations estimated their legal liability at under €60 million if forced into court, as they believed nine out of ten cases would fail— mainly because of the statute of limitations. Woods was determined to believe them though 20 years later it is clear that many religious orders including Spiritans, Jesuits and Carmelites are now reportedly paying pupils for abuse in their schools because they cannot sustain technical defences, morally, and want to continue to act in positions of authority.
Crucially too, the cost of the estimated redress portion of the liability rose fivefold to €1.25 billion as a result of the numbers and severity of claims. The State has long estimated the total cost of the inquiry bill, a survivor redress scheme and related survivor supports at €1.5 billion. This has proved accurate and includes payments of nearly 15,000 claims, at an average award of €62,250; and €193 million in legal costs. The State thinks the religious should in principle pay 50%, but the religious demur.
The agreement was infamously signed just before the 2002 general election, and consequently was not laid before the cabinet for its approval. It then remained unpublished for several months. Woods said that his strong Catholic faith made him the most suitable person to negotiate the deal. When asked to give a statement about the exclusion of then Attorney-General, Michael McDowell, and his officials from two meetings, Woods said: “The legal people simply couldn’t have attended – it was a no-go area for them – they had fallen out with the religious”.
Woods also tried to shift the blame for the institutionalised child abuse onto the State and made the untrue statement that it was the Department of Education that “had control, management role, organisation” and that the State knew all the details when making the deal. Of course, exaggerating the culpability of the State minimised the liability of the Catholic Church.
However, the reality was that management was exclusively a matter for the religious orders. Journalist and campaigner Mary Raftery criticised his remarks, pointing out that some of them contradicted statements made by Woods himself.
While Woods said his Catholicism was an asset that had helped to break a deadlock in negotiations, he denied he was a member of Opus Dei, the Knights of St. Columbanus or any other lay Catholic organisation.
Second, Voluntary, Deal
In 2015, there was a second, this time voluntary, deal which agreed to an additional €352 million, given the findings of fault. However, according to an April 2017 report from the Comptroller and Auditor General, the voluntary sum was reduced to €193 million (a press release from the same body a month earlier said €226 million), after the Christian Brothers reduced their voluntary commitment to surrender playing fields by €127 million. There were also other extraordinary adjustments and re-evaluations.
The government was aware of the abuses yet the “deferential and submissive attitude of the Department of Education towards the Congregations compromised its ability to carry out its statutory duty of inspection and monitoring of the schools”
The value of the indemnity and voluntary deals was a combined €321 million (€128 million plus €193 million) coming, according to the Irish Times, in part from a portfolio of 49 school playing fields from the Christian Brothers valued at €127 million and 48 Sisters of Mercy properties valued, though not independently, at some €107 million.
Then Education Minister Richard Bruton noted in 2017 that if the religious orders paid up on all the offers it would come to only 21% of the €1.5 billion paid by the State up to then.
As if all that was not scandalous enough, it seems that nearly all of the religious congregations have fallen short of their commitments, especially the voluntary ones.
Payments under first Indemnity Deal
Some €125 million of the €128 million provided for under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement has indeed creditably been contributed, with the transfer of two properties remaining to be fully completed. The cash and counselling contributions received under the Agreement, amounting to some €65 million, were made on a collective basis which is why it is not possible to identify the amounts paid by individual congregations.
Payments under Voluntary Deal
The voluntary contributions made in the aftermath of the publication of the Ryan Report in 2009 including cash, properties and contributions in kind amounted, as of last year, 2022, to approximately €111.5 million of the promised €193 million, originally €353 million.
One further cash contribution is outstanding under the 2009 offers and will arise from the disposal of a property by the Sisters of Mercy.
This means that rather than 21%, the total haul from the Religious Congregations is closer to 16.9%.
Up to 2022 some €237 million of the €480.6 million originally provided for under the 2002 and 2015 Agreements has been contributed
In January 2023 a misleading report in the Irish Times by Carl O’Brien was headlined, “contributions from congregations amount to just €480m”. But of course that was merely what had been promised in 2002 and 2015 combined — and then according to the Comptroller and Auditor General reduced — not what had been contributed which was just €237 million. It is a big mistake on the record.
Assets for the community and quality of life
Money contributed to the Catholic Church by the community should now be treated as a community resource. Much of the money went into land and buildings which are peculiarly valuable for community purposes in 2023. It is not clear that the community public interest is well served by flogging institutional lands and school sports fields to the detriment of today’s children to meet liabilities to a previous generation.
The Ryan Report found that the abuses were systemic in the institutions it investigated, and that both the Church and the State were aware of what was happening within the walls that were meant to provide safety and shelter for children. It is therefore right to hold the Orders and the Church accountable, and indeed equally.
It cannot be denied that the Church does some service for the good in today’s communities and still offers a support network for some. However, given the severity of its Order’s crimes, often targeting the most vulnerable in society, and their reluctance to make the contributions they promised, credibility has been lost in Ireland, most likely forever. One of the under-recognised side effects of the abjuration of responsibility by the Church is that the demise of religion left many people with no moral purpose of any sort.
Schools
95% of Irish national schools remain firmly under the control of religious organisations, with 89% run by the Catholic Church, down only two per cent in 15 years. Fewer than 20 schools have changed patron since Ruairí Quinn as Minister for Education in 2011 introduced a divestment initiative, since rebranded as schools reconfiguration for diversity. The Government’s 2030 target will only increase multi-denominational schools from 5% to 13% of all school stock. Just under 50% of secondary schools too remain under religious patronage (also down just 2% in fifteen years).
Hospitals
Seven of the largest “public” hospitals in Ireland are owned by private Catholic bodies though they obtain more than €1 billion of State funding each year and more in capital grants. Catholic control of the private healthcare sector is even tighter. Twelve of Ireland’s 18 private hospitals are Catholic in ethos.
Moral pressure, increased amount, transfer land and buildings
One clearly appropriate strategy even now would be for the State to re-open the issue and put moral pressure on the Church to increase the amount of the liability. The State could then appropriate land, buildings, hospitals and schools and, rather than sell them to the highest bidder in the market, put them to secular Community purposes to advance quality of life which has filled the gap left by religion as the agenda of our times.
And that’s not all
A separate scheme paying out €800 million to survivors of the Mother and Baby Homes, which involved six Orders has failed to get commitments from the Religious in the two years since its publication.
