Protection of Institution Main Concern for Religious Orders, Claims Bruton

By Ronan McGreevy
Irish Times
March 10, 2017

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Richard Bruton described the ˆ219 million contribution by the Catholic Church to the redress bill as a ‘far cry’ from the 50 per cent share it agreed to contribute. Photograph: Cyril Byrne/The Irish Times

The Minister of Education has said the approach taken by religious orders to redress for people abused in religious institutions suggested the “protection of the institution had far greater authority than protection of the children”.

Richard Bruton described the ˆ219 million contribution by the Catholic Church to the redress bill as a “far cry” from the 50 per cent share it agreed to contribute when a deal was done with the State in 2002.

Then the orders agreed to contribute ˆ128 million as part of an estimated redress bill of ˆ256 million.

The original figure was a gross underestimation of the actual cost which has spiralled to ˆ1.5 billion.

Speaking on RTE’s Morning Ireland, Mr Bruton said it remained the Government’s belief that an “equitable share out bearing in mind the responsibility would be 50:50 and we are a far cry from that”.