Sir, – Patsy McGarry suggests ("Congregations proven right about cost dangers of redress scheme" April 4th) that 18 Roman Catholic religious congregations should not be responsible for 50 per cent of the €1.5 billion cost of redress, because the State designed the scheme of redress, not the Catholic orders.
He is right, but for the wrong reason.
Only the State had the power, and a duty, to frame a scheme of redress for victims of emotional, physical and of sexual abuse.
It was not a church liability. Abuse took place under a franchised duty of care owed by the state to children affected.
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The fact that State-funded care was exercised at one remove by churches paid (inadequately) to do so does not excuse the State of its responsibility. It compounds it.
And there is the rub. Clerical agents of the 18 congregations did not carry out 100 per cent of the abuse, though that forms part of an official and of a media narrative.
Former residents of Protestant-ethos and of some state-run institutions suffered abuse also.
Curiously, no Minister or media outlet has urged those who ran non-Roman Catholic institutions, where abuse also took place, to cough up their alleged 50 per cent share.
The purpose of the State’s 2002 indemnity-against-prosecution agreement with the 18, which in turn promised €128 million towards the cost of redress, was to provide the State with a target for public anger. But no agreement was attempted with those who ran other institutions, as that would have derailed a simple agenda: don’t blame us, blame the 18.
At my request, Clare Daly TD recently asked the Minister for Education and Skills to list the institutions managed by the 18 congregations and those run by others. She was refused the information.
The Redress Board told me legislation prevents it from telling me how many applicants per institution contacted the board, or how much they estimate each institution contributed to the €1.5 billion bill.
The Comptroller and Auditor could possibly find out, given ministerial direction.
But that seems unlikely as the Government seems intent on encouraging an uninformed debate in perpetuity.
The three official arms of abuse restitution are flawed.
The 2002 Redress Board cannot tell us how much, individually, institutions are responsible for abuse.
The 2012 Statutory Fund offers continuing support to some Protestant victims, based on €128 million of Roman Catholic funding.
The 2009 Ryan Commission investigated only Roman Catholic abuse, as Protestant victims (I spoke to) thought it “a Catholic thing” and did not speak to Ryan.
It is not a Catholic thing: it is a societal thing. Residential home victims deserved redress, as do today mother and baby home victims. – Yours, etc,
NIALL MEEHAN,
Faculty Head,
Journalism & Media,
Griffith College,
Dublin.