Fury over religious orders that owe state more than €100million in abuse compensation receiving millions in HSE grants

By Adam Higgins
Irish Sun
September 4, 2017

https://www.thesun.ie/news/1484080/fury-over-religious-orders-that-owe-state-more-than-e100million-in-abuse-compensation-receiving-millions-in-hse-grants/

Abuse bill orders collected €300m in grants in 2016

Public Accounts Committee chairman Sean Fleming

FOUR religious orders forming part of a group that owes the State more than €100million in abuse compo got almost €300m in HSE grants last year.

Some 18 orders that ran facilities where children were abused have paid only €95.9m of their promised €226m as a result of the long-running Ryan Inquiry.

Despite this, the Brothers of Charity, Daughters of Charity, Sisters of Charity and Sisters of Mercy have got almost €300m for running medical facilities.

The Irish Sun now breaks down the amount each organisation has paid from the 2015 bill, with the Christian Brothers and the Sisters of Mercy footing more than half of the costs paid so far.

The Sisters of Mercy, which ran a number of industrial schools where children were abused, has paid €25.1m to the Department of Education as part of the redress scheme to date.

The Christian Brothers have paid €21.2m, Oblates of Mary Immaculate have paid €20m and the Dominican Order have paid €6.5m.

Sisters of St Louis, Sisters of St Clare, Hospitaller Order of St John of God and the De La Salle Brothers have all paid €1m each.

Sisters of Our Lady Charity, Brothers of Charity and Daughters of the Heart Mary have paid €1.5m each while Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul have paid €5m.

The Sisters of Charity have paid €2m to the fund while the Presentation Sisters have paid twice that and the Presentation Brothers have paid €3.6m.

Three orders – the Good Shepherd Sisters, Rosminians and the Sisters of Nazareth – have yet to make a payment.

Meanwhile, the Brothers of Charity received €182m from the HSE, the Daughters of Charity got €109m, the Sisters of Charity were awarded €4.5m and the Sisters of Mercy got €302,000, making a grand total of nearly €300m.

Public Accounts Committee chairman Sean Fleming told the Irish Sun: “It’s inexcusable for religious orders to make a commitment to the people of Ireland and not to honour it in full.”

The TD called for all monies to be collected but he cautioned against cutting the HSE grants because “there are many people in vulnerable situations that depend on those services”.

A spokesman for the Daughters of Charity said: “We are dealing directly with the Government on the redress scheme and we will have fully met our commitment in this regard within the next six months.”