State pays €120,000 to victim of school abuse

The State has paid out €120,000 to a victim of abuse in a further settlement under the controversial indemnity deal between the…

The State has paid out €120,000 to a victim of abuse in a further settlement under the controversial indemnity deal between the Government and the religious orders.

The latest settlement was made before Christmas last year after the State had originally tried to have the case struck out, claiming it to be statute-barred.

In reaching the settlement, the State insisted on a confidentiality clause preventing the plaintiff from releasing details of the settlement.

It also refused to make any admission of liability on behalf of the State or the religious order involved in relation to the abuse allegations.

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The case was brought by a former resident of St Joseph's School for the Visually Impaired, in Drumcondra, Dublin, who alleged he was abused by two men associated with the school between the late 1970s and 1980s. Both men are now dead.

The school was run by the Rosminian order at the time. The order is still involved in the school.

The man, now in his mid-30s, was originally suing the Rosminian order. However, following the signing of the controversial indemnity deal between the Government and the 18 religious orders, the State took over the case.

The plaintiff said he was repeatedly sexually abused by the two men, one a religious brother and the other a lay person.

The lay person frequently raped the plaintiff up to the age of about 14. The brother abused him while he was in that particular unit from the age of 14 to 18.

It was claimed that both men had unlimited and unsupervised access to and control over children. Some of the abuse took place during a trip to Lourdes.

Since leaving the school, the man has suffered from mental health problems which have been directly attributed to his experiences at the school.

In defending the case, the State argued that neither it nor the order had any responsibility relating to the abuse. Before settling the case, the State had moved to have the claim struck out because of the time lapse between the alleged incidents and the case.

The settlement is the second known to have been made under the indemnity deal with the religious orders.

Under the deal, the State agreed to indemnify the orders against all current and future legal claims of abuse in return for a 128 million contribution to the Government's redress scheme.

In December 2002, the State agreed another six-figure payment to a former resident of St Joseph's children's home in the 1970s.

There are just over 100 residential schools, homes and hospitals included in the list of institutions covered by the indemnity clause.

Last week, in a written response to a Dáil question, the Minister for Education, Mr Dempsey, signalled his intention to add a number of additional institutions to the list.