This morning, The Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General published a report on the cost of the child abuse inquiry and redress schemes.
Via The Comptroller
The work of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse and of the Redress Board is largely complete. Costs to the end of 2015 of the child abuse inquiry and redress are an estimated €1.5 billion.
Both the cost to the State and the time required to bring the process to a conclusion have hugely exceeded original estimates.
The Commission’s work cost an estimated €82 million – the Department of Education and Skills initially forecast the cost at €2.5 million.
The final report of the Commission, often referred to as the Ryan report, was published in May 2009.
The redress scheme accounts for the largest element of the costs, at an estimated €1.25 billion.
The original forecast cost of the scheme was €250 million.
By the end of 2015, awards totalling €970 million had been made to 15,579 claimants – an average award of €62,250. 85% of the awards were at or below a level of €100,000 per person. The highest award made was €300,000.
By 31 December 2015, the Redress Board had approved legal cost payments of €192.9 million to 991 legal firms in respect of 15,345 applications.
17 legal firms were paid between €1 million and €5 million each and seven firms were paid amounts between €5 million and €19 million each.
Outside of the redress scheme, other supports have been put in place to assist the former residents of the institutions. The overall spend on health, housing, educational and counselling services is estimated at €176 million.
Government policy was to pursue the sharing of the cost of redress on a 50:50 basis with the religious congregations.
This would require the congregations to contribute €760 million.
To date, the congregations have offered the equivalent to about 23% of the overall cost.
Contributions received from the congregations up to the end of 2015 represent about 13% of the cost.
An indemnity agreement was signed in 2002 between the State and 18 religious congregations, who agreed to contribute to the costs of redress by transferring property, cash and other resources totalling €128 million, of which €21 million remains to be transferred to the State at the end of 2015.
Following the publication of the Ryan Report in 2009, the congregations offered additional cash and property valued at €353 million.
This combined offer was revised to €226 million
in September 2015. Six years after the publication of the Ryan report, only €85 million (38%) of the €226 million offer has been received by the State.
Full, text here
Yesterday: Spotting The Woods For The Trees
Sounds about right. These are powerful institutions. In this country, the powerful don’t pay – and our legislators ensure that this continues to be the case.
+ 1.5billion
Time we made them pay. They ain’t going broke anytime soon.
Oh yeh, the numerous reports of sales of land and property in the last couple of years suggest that religious orders are doing just fine, financially.
Hypocrites.
I am sick of this.
Shouldnt the catholics pay most for catholic institutions, protestants for protestant institutions, other flavours for their own deeds? So it’ll teach them a lesson to keep own clergy in check. Unaffiliates then contribute 30% or so on humanitarian grounds, out of social camaraderie and care for society as a whole?
The utopia… :-)
and what would be the percentage of unilateral self-excommunications in this case? Lol :-)
nelly, that seems eminently fair to me. Given that it is fair, what are the odds of it happening?
Sheik, in fairness to broasheet me i did say ‘utopia’ :-) We could place bets at glorious paddy power, but it’d be disrespectful to abuse victims.
Wouldn’t it be very curious to see how many would have been fleeing the faith when real financial demands came to fore.
Litmus-licious, man!
True – even the hardliners might balk at having to pay for the crimes of their religious, on top of room, board, salaries, pensions and general comforts.
It happens in Germany, doesn’t it?
We’d get very different census answers to be sure.
Can’t pay, won’t pray :)
…a shower of ingrates in that Auditor General Office…not a mention of the brown envelopes stuffed with plenary indulgences passed out to every Tom, Dan and Bertie…