BishopAccountability.org
	Focus: Paying the Price As the Church Is Forced to Increase Its Compensation to Abuse Victims, the Clamour Is Growing for Perpetrators to Face Prosecution By Mark Tighe Sunday Times (United Kingdom) May 31, 2009 http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/ireland/article6395585.ece When abuse victims of the church-run industrial schools come before the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB) their degree of suffering is evaluated under a points system. In the first of four categories, they are marked on a scale from one to 25 depending on the severity of the abuse inflicted upon them. In addition, a maximum of 30 points are available for "a medically verified physical or psychiatric illness" and another 30 points for "psychosocial consequences". A final 15 points are available for "loss of opportunity" as the board assesses whether a complainant's career has suffered. If a victim scores more than 70 points a payment is made from the highest award band: between €200,000 and €300,000 (£175,000 and £262,000). Victims describe going through the marking scheme as "a gruelling interrogation", because testimony can be challenged in minute detail. John Kelly, spokesman for the Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) group, said some victims have been asked to describe their abuser's penis in order to test the truth of their allegations. From the 12,436 victims who have received redress, 85% were awarded less than €100,000, meaning they scored 39 or less on the RIRB's scale of hurt. If it was a school exam those results would be marked 'F', but many feel that it is the redress scheme itself that is a failure. "Those 15 points for loss of future earnings equate to a maximum of €30,000 for the loss of a career," said Raymond Bradley, a partner with Malcomson Law, which has represented victims at the redress hearings. "It's rare to get any points under the future earnings category because the board deems that many of the people before it mightn't have achieved much anyway." Bradley said that the scheme's awards had been adequate for victims less severely affected by the abuse, but for those who suffered horrific abuse they were insufficient. The scale of the damage done by the industrial schools was already apparent, given the 14,500 applications made to the redress scheme and the estimated final bill of €1.3 billion. But the fact that the religious orders had in 2002 agreed to contribute just €128m to that sum has always been a source of deep annoyance. With the publication of the Ryan report 10 days ago, however, the full detail of the horror perpetrated on former residents by the religious orders was revealed. The scale of the abuse chronicled by the report meant that the limit on the religious orders' contribution to compensation became an unacceptable affront. Six days after maintaining that the 2002 deal was written in stone, the religious orders accepted that they must pay more. Will they now finally atone for their mistreatment of thousands of children? What will any extra money be spent on? And is it cash that the victims really want anyway? A common thread among those familiar with the religious orders and their handling of abuse is cynicism about their willingness to face up to their guilt. "You need an Enigma machine to decipher what they are really saying," said Kelly. For others it is far clearer. "First off, don't trust anything they say," said Thomas Doyle, an American Catholic priest who campaigns for the church to address systematic sexual abuse. "If the orders were serious about fully compensating the victims of abuse, it would have happened by now." Doyle is from the same camp as priests like Michael Mernagh, who walked from Cobh to Dublin over the New Year to highlight the church's failure to respond adequately to allegations of child abuse. He wrote last week that while the Ryan report was not unique, "it may well be the most shocking example of the reality of such a culture of evil". Doyle describes as predictable the response of officials responsible for running the orders to the complaints of victims. First comes denial followed by "minimisation". Then "blame shifting" and "limited acknowledgement" is accompanied by "nuanced apologies". Doyle said that at no time in Ireland, as in other countries, has the leadership of the Catholic church ever owned up to systematic accountability. He describes the standard apologies as "devious and irrelevant" and says they inflict further hurt on the abused. For Doyle, any promises of further reparation by the orders are pointless. He believes the government should make sure of the compensation "by forcibly divesting them of properties". Last Tuesday, shortly before the taoiseach called on the congregations to contribute more, the Christian Brothers announced that substantial resources would be made available for its former residents. One of the Brothers' advisers insisted the move was not prompted by public outcry. Rather it was the "genuine shock and shame" prompted by reading the Ryan report. "They've looked in the mirror and didn't like what they've seen," the adviser said. But it is not clear how much the Brothers are willing to pay. The organisation, one of 18 that Ryan condemned as guilty of institutional abuse, said that it was reviewing all of its resources to see how they can "best be applied in reparation for abuses of the past", and promised investment in child education and welfare. But not included in the review will be the 97 schools and properties, valued at €400m, that the Brothers transferred to the Edmund Rice Trust last year. Chaired by Justice Peter Kelly, the trust was formed to guarantee the future of the schools. Doyle, a sceptic of the order's motives, believes this is a "thin smokescreen" and similar to a ploy that was used in Canada to prevent assets being sold to pay compensation. He believes there will be more twisting and turning by the orders to protect their assets. Most of them have valuable land and conference centres. Victims are still sceptical about extra money being suddenly made available to them after years of squabbling and the defensive stance adopted by the orders. According to the Department of Education, just 21 of 63 properties to be transferred to the state as part of the 2002 indemnity deal have changed hands. The government will talk to victims' groups before meeting the orders on Thursday. Nobody knows how much money will be put on the table, but Sean Healy of the Conference of Religious in Ireland (Cori) set down a marker last week when he said it would be fair for the congregations to fund 50% of the redress bill. That would mean increasing the €128m to €650m. The government has indicated that this extra money will go to the Exchequer to repay taxpayers who have paid €925m to date. Brian Cowen, the taoiseach, said extra money from the orders would also be used to establish a trust to support education and welfare. Both the government and the orders say that the assessment of the orders' assets will be a transparent process. That will make it significantly different from the 2002 deal which Fiona O'Malley, a former Progressive Democrat colleague of Mary Harney, the health minister, said was concluded "without normal cabinet procedures" being observed. With the orders back at the negotiating table, there is hope that money could be found to compensate the 200 day-pupils of religious schools who were abused and who are suing through the High Court. Unlike their counterparts who attended the industrial schools, these ex-pupils do not have access to a redress scheme. One of those seeking compensation is Timothy O'Rourke, who was a victim of Donal Dunne, a serial sexual abuser over a 40-year period. The Ryan report devoted a chapter to Dunne's activities. James MacGuill, a solicitor for O'Rourke, said the state and religious orders should stop the "appalling discrimination between victims of the same orders ". "These are people who have got nothing at all so far," MacGuill said. "This isn't primarily about the amount of money but it's the recognition factor. If a cohort of people who have suffered appallingly remain unaddressed, then the orders aren't starting a process of recovery but are simply trying to limit the damage to their own reputations and to avoid whatever the state might do to them." MacGuill believes the orders' attitude has been "how much money will buy us out [of] this problem". A spokesman for Batt O'Keeffe, the minister for education, has said that there is no intention of using funds to support a redress scheme for victims of day schools. "Those in day schools are free to take their cases to the High Court," he said. The state recently won a Supreme Court test case against Louise O'Keeffe (no relation to the minister), a victim of abuse by her headmaster at a Catholic day school, with the judges confirming that the state bears no liability for those abused in day schools. Like many of the victims, Kelly's main hope is that the Brothers identified as abusers by Ryan will be arrested and prosecuted. Speaking on the Late Late Show last Friday, actor Gabriel Byrne, who was molested by some members of the Christian Brothers, said if the guilty were let go it would represent further abuse of the victims. Those who physically penetrated young boys and girls "with spittle and Vaseline" should not be allowed to walk away, said an emotional Byrne. The agreement the orders made for their members to testify before Ryan means that nothing presented at the commission can be used in a criminal or civil case. Kelly describes this as a "devious clause" used as a "get out of jail card for perverts". Derek Byrne, an assistant garda commissioner who is investigating whether there can be further criminal charges brought, sought legal advice from the chief state solicitor last week on whether it was possible to use any information contained in the Ryan report. In the chapter on the Letterfrack industrial school, there are 20 cases with documented or credible evidence of Brothers who were sexually abusive. Just two of these 20 were convicted. While the report is not clear on how many are still alive, it seems at least six are and none have been convicted of crimes. A new hotline for those who wish to make fresh complaints to gardai was set up on Thursday. "At the moment, we are trawling," said a senior officer. "Some of the calls that we received are from people who have previously made statements but there is new information coming in, which will be examined in greater detail. It is going to take some time before everything is collated and logged." Kelly and other victims are determined to use the public outrage to force the orders to face the consequences of their actions. If the final bill is assessed by awarding points for every crime committed, the orders will be paying the price for a long time to come.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.