IRELAND
RTE News
Owners of the largest Catholic institutions where children were abused while in State care have defended their contributions to the €1.5 billion bill for paying redress to survivors.
The Christian Brothers and Sisters of Mercy were responding to yesterday’s report by the State’s auditor that the eighteen Catholic entities concerned had paid about 13% of the cost and to criticism by the Minister for Education Richard Bruton.
The Minister had stated that the Church’s progress towards shouldering its promised one quarter share of the redress bill had gone into reverse.
In a statement the Christian Brothers’ leader, Brother Edmund Garvey, said the audit report’s 14 month-old figures do not take account of the congregations’ more recent €14m cash payment.
Brother Garvey also highlighted playing fields worth “well over €100m” that are almost ready to be transferred to the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.
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