CHILD ABUSE REPORT:A VICTIMS' support group has described the refusal of religious congregations to reconsider the terms of the controversial redress deal for abuse survivors as an "act of aggressive self-protection".
The Rape Crisis Network Ireland (RCNI) yesterday rejected proposals by the congregations to provide more of their resources to former residents rather than re-open the terms of the 2002 indemnity deal.
The network said it was unacceptable for agencies involved in the systematic abuse revealed in the Ryan commission report “to promote themselves as best placed to meet the needs of those they have previously betrayed”.
The network’s director, Fiona Neary, said: “Under no circumstances can any office or agency of these institutions be involved in the administration of any such fund which, if agreed to, must be handed over fully to the State for any dispersal.”
Earlier, the director general of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), Marie Ann O’Connor, said the 18 congregations would prefer to “deal directly and to use all in their powers to channel whatever resources directly to the former residents” rather than revisit the terms of the deal.
In an interview on RTÉ Radio, Ms O’Connor denied that the congregations’ refusal to revisit the deal represented “a blocking mechanism or a way of saying no”.
She said: “I think as the congregations view it, the redress [deal] is not the best vehicle to do what they want to do.”
Ms O’Connor said that reopening the deal would only serve to reimburse the State and would not help the victims.
If it were to be reopened, it could “end up in a legal quagmire” lasting months or years, she said.
The indemnity deal had been reached “in good faith” and on “a certain numerical understanding of the likely payments”, she said.
While these calculations were wrong, the deal would not be reopened, she added.
“The deal is closed, the deal is done. It was done in good faith.”
More resources would be made available to victims, but “the best way to give that has not been found”.
Ms O’Connor stressed that not all congregations had huge resources and many were tied up in buildings.
If the deal were reopened, the religious orders would have to withdraw from other services “and the consequences of that could be catastrophic,” she said.
Victims’ advocate Christine Buckley described the stance of religious congregations as “an emotional stunt” designed to maintain control over the vulnerable people who were abused in their institutions.
Ms Buckley, who is director of the Aislinn Centre which helps people who suffered abuse as children, said that the congregations had not even adhered to what they were supposed to pay in the original indemnity deal.
In an interview with Newstalk Radio yesterday, she said: “Under no circumstances should the religious congregations have anything to do with survivors of abuse, because it will just be a complete revolving wheel of pain and blackmail”.
“They havent done anything that they promised to do. They didn’t even put on a helpline over these last days. They had it in place, but they didn’t even think it was necessary.
“They have spent years trying to undermine my credibility. They have bullied survivors in order to try and get those people to agree with them,” she added.
Ms Buckley said the congregations were incapable of understanding the hurt they have caused.
In its statement yesterday, the RCNI said what survivors of abuse wanted most was for the congregations to move quickly and take responsibility for the crimes perpetrated under their care.
“Sadly, yet again we see these institutions employ the legal profession and hide behind so-called legal concerns in order to aggressively protect their self preservation at any cost,” the network said.
The network said that rape crisis centres across the country had witnessed a surge in calls from distressed people following the publication of the commission’s report.
It said that many people who contacted the network’s centres were survivors who had previously ceased contact with their services, but who were now returning for support as they found themselves struggling to cope with hearing about the abuse and violence outlined in the report.