Tag Archives: Indemnity Deal

This evening.

Seanad Eireann,

Earlier…

Minister for Children, Equality, Disability Integration and Youth Roderic O’Gorman (centre) at Dublin castle this morning

This afternoon.

Minister for Children Roderic O’Gorman is to apologise in the Dail later to the upwards of 20,000 people who were affected by illegal birth registrations.

However…

….via RTE News:

Documents released to RTÉ News under Freedom of Information, show that a series of meetings on the redress scheme have taken place between Mr O’Gorman and leaders of the Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland as well as religious congregations.

However, agreement has not yet been reached.

The Government cannot compel contributions, but it is requesting orders to help pay for some of the cost of the €800 million redress scheme.

The six religious orders are the Bon Secours sisters, the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary, Sisters of St John of God, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, Sisters of Mercy and the Daughters of Charity as well as a Catholic lay organisation, the Legion of Mary.

The issue of eliciting contributions from religious orders has proved controversial following a 2002 deal which limited the amount to €128 million.

The Residential Institutions Redress Scheme from that time has cost at least €1.25 billion.

No agreement on religious orders’ redress contribution in mother-and-baby home scheme (RTE)

Previously: “The Church Would Never Had Been Coming Up With €1.5 Billion”

Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews

Micheál Martin and Michael Woods, who signed off on the indemnity deal with the religious, at a Fianna Fáil think-in in 2009

“In retrospect in my view, that was, that was a mistake at the time.

I think there was that window. You’re talking about the last cabinet meeting [of that government]. This is something that has been negotiated. It’s in the best interests of everybody, bring it to closure and that’s how it got through.”

Micheál Martin, speaking on last night’s Redress: Breaking The Silence on RTÉ One

The June 2002 deal between Fianna Fáil and 18 religious orders, brokered by the late Michael Woods while serving as Minister for Education, awarded indemnity against all legal claims if the orders paid €128m in cash and property.

The agreement was made by Mr Woods, a devout Catholic, on behalf of Fianna Fáil, before the 2002 General Election and cabinet approval was never sought. It was also never run past the Attorney General of the day [Michael McDowell].

In March 2017, Sean O Rourke on RTÉ Radio One interviewed Mr Martin about the deal.

Seán O’Rourke: “Should the Government now, given what was revealed in Tuam, revisit the deal that was done in 2002 between the church and the then Fianna Fáil government?

You were part of it. There was the minister [for justice], Michael Woods giving the religious orders a €128million or 128million pound/punt indemnity. And, since then, the State has paid €1.5billion in restitution for the abuse. I’m not sure if the €128million, such as it was, has actually ever been delivered?”

Micheál Martín: “Well, first of all, there’s two elements of that. There’s the payments to victims of industrial schools at the time. And the redress board that was established – that would have had to be established irrespective of any deal with the church, Sean.

The church would never had been coming up with €1.5billion and the legal advice at the time, and I remember speaking to the late Rory Brady who was the Attorney General [Editor’s note: Mr Brady was appointed Attorney General after the indemnity deal was struck], he was adamant that the State would always, because of its involvement, from the inspectorial regime at the time in industrial schools – it was culpable.

And so the choice was: does one, would you leave the victims waiting and those who were in, the survivors, sorry, of industrial schools, would you leave them waiting or would you allow them have to go through the courts for years to get their justified compensation. Or would you do…”

O’Rourke: “Are you saying that was the best deal that could be done at the time?

Martin: “No I’m saying it was the most humane thing that could have been done in terms of the redress scheme…”

Full transcript here

Redress: Breaking The Silence Part 2 on RTÉ One tonight at 9.35pm

Rollingnews

From top: Dr Michael Woods (right) with former Taoiseach Brian Cowen (left) and current FF leader Micheál Martín at a FF think-in in 2009; Senator Michael McDowell

Next Thursday, at 10.15pm.

RTÉ One will broadcast a new documentary Rome V Republic, presented by senator, barrister and former Attorney General Michael McDowell.

It will recall the June 2002 deal between Fianna Fáil and 18 religious orders, which awarded the orders indemnity against all legal claims if they paid €128m in cash and property.

The agreement was made by Dr Michael Woods, a devout Catholic, on behalf of Fianna Fail, before the 2002 General Election and on his last day in office.

Cabinet approval was never sought for the deal  and it was also never run past the Attorney General of the day [Michael McDowell].

At the time of the deal, the total liability to survivors was estimated at €300m even though no detailed analysis was carried out by any government department.

As of 2017, the total liability was estimated at €1.5bn.

It’s been previously reported that Mr McDowell and his staff were excluded from two meetings between the State and the orders in November 2001 and January 2002.

Mr Woods reportedly later defended this move, saying:

“The legal people simply couldn’t have attended – it was a no-go area for them – they had fallen out with the religious.”

“My religion was an asset. They knew me and they knew my work. I can’t say someone else wouldn’t have been able to do the same. That said, they would have known me well.”

Today, The Irish Times reports Mr McDowell as saying:

“The simple fact of the matter is that the result was that the State effectively signed a blank cheque which cost us €1.4 billion in the end, in exchange for a promise of a contribution of €128 million from the religious orders.”

Two years ago, Seán O’Rourke, on RTÉ Radio One, interviewed the current leader of Fianna Fáil Mícheál Martin about the deal – asking if the Government should revisit the deal considering what had then emerged about the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Co Galway.

Mr Martin said:

“The church would never had been coming up with €1.5billion and the legal advice at the time, and I remember speaking to the late [Fianna Fáil] Rory Brady who was the Attorney General [sic], he was adamant that the State would always, because of its involvement, from the inspectorial regime at the time in industrial schools – it was culpable.”

Religious congregations indemnity deal was ‘a blank cheque’, says Michael McDowell (Patsy McGarry, The Irish Times)

Previously: Spotting The Woods For The Trees

Indemnity And The Religious

Religious Sisters of Charity Ireland - Welcome Header Image Based on the RSC 2013 Redrawn Logo - Sans Serif

Pitifully little charity either.

A religious order that owes millions of euros in compensation for child abuse will retain ownership of the new National Maternity Hospital after it is built with more than €200 million of taxpayers’ money.

The new hospital will be built on the Elm Park site at St Vincent’s University Hospital in Dublin. St Vincent’s Healthcare Group is run and owned by the Sisters of Charity, which has paid only €2 million of the €5 million it offered to contribute in reparations to abuse victims. Its most recent payment was in 2013.

The religious order will own the maternity hospital as well as a new independent company that has been established to guarantee corporate governance, but the HSE has said that its interests will be protected once construction is completed.

The HSE said the land at the St Vincent’s campus was being made available for the new hospital at no cost to the state and that “appropriate security arrangements” would be put in place to protect state interests.

Nuns who owe millions in abuse reparations given hospital (Ellen Coyne, The Times Ireland Edition)

Previously: ‘Based On The Findings Of The McAleese Report’

 

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The grounds of the former Bon Secours mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway; Galway West independent TD Catherine Connolly

You may recall how, during Leaders’ Questions on March 8, Independent TD Catherine Connolly, of Galway West, asked about a second interim report from the Commission into Mother and Baby Homes which was given to the Minister for Children Katherine Zappone last September.

This interim report was to identify any matters that the commission felt warranted further investigation as part of the commission’s work.

Ms Connolly asked Taoiseach Enda Kenny:

“I’m asking you now to confirm, why it hasn’t been published? Eight months later? What’s in it that’s so frightening? What’s in it that prevents it being published?”

Further to this…

Fiach Kelly, in The Irish Times, reports this morning that the indemnity agreement signed in 2002 between the then Minister for Education Michael Woods and 18 religious congregations – which served to cap the orders’  liability – may be extended to include children abused in mother and baby homes.

Just recently, the Comptroller and Auditor General found that, as of the end of 2015, the congregations had paid just 13% of the total compensation bill which, at that point, amounted to €1.5billion.

Mr Kelly writes:

The existing redress scheme for victims of residential child abuse could be reopened to cover those abused as children in mother and baby homes, an unpublished report to the Government has recommended.

The proposal is contained in the second interim report of the Commission of Investigation into Mother and Baby Homes, The Irish Times has learned. It has caused alarm in Government circles, due to the cost of the existing scheme.

It says the redress scheme established in 2002 could be used again to provide compensation for those who were abused as children in mother and baby homes.

…Ms Zappone has been repeatedly pressed in the Dáil for the reason for the delay in publishing the second interim report, which she received last autumn.

A briefing on it was given to Cabinet in the autumn, but a number of Ministers could not remember a redress scheme being discussed. Well-informed sources said the delay in its publication was due to the controversial nature of the proposed form of redress.

One source suggested that it may never be published if there had not been public outcry over the commission’s confirmation last month of the discovery of the remains of babies and infants at the site of a former mother and baby home in Tuam, Co Galway. However it is now expected to be published next week.

Government alarm at possible redress for mother and baby home victims (The Irish Times)

Previously: ‘What’s In It That’s So Frightening?’

Indemnity And The Religious

‘Based On The Findings Of The McAleese Report’

Mairead

Further to journalist Conor Ryan’s story in this morning’s Irish Examiner – in which he revealed for the first time correspondence between religious orders and the State in relation to the indemnity deal and how the Sisters of Mercy transferred 66 schools, worth €412million to a religious trust called Ceist – law lecturer at Kent Law School Mairéad Enright, above, has written her thoughts on the matter.

In Human Rights in Ireland blog, she writes:

“The question of how church institutions maintain control of property which might otherwise be the subject of compensation paid on litigation, or which might come within the ambit of redress schemes, has taken on significant weight in other jurisdictions.

“In the United States, in July, District Judge Rudolph Randa held that clerical abuse victims – the primary creditors of the bankrupt Archdiocese of Milwaukee – could not access $55m which, in 2007, the then Archbishop had placed in a cemetery trust for the perpetual care of the deceased of the Archdiocese.

“The Judge held that any interference with the trust would compromise the constitutional protection for free expression of religion. The former Archbishop, now Cardinal Dolan, maintains that the transfer of this enormous sum was not an attempt to avoid compensation claims.

“In New South Wales and in Victoria [Australia] campaigners have advocated reform of the Roman Catholic Church Trust Property Act, which the Catholic Church has used to avoid paying compensation in sexual abuse claims. The church has successfully argued, using the so-called ‘Ellis defence‘ – that diocesan statutory property trusts cannot be sued except on property claims. Victims must rely on mediation with dioceses to obtain redress under the controversial ‘Towards Healing‘ scheme and this raises controversial issues of oversight and bargaining power, similar to those which arise on settlement of a lawsuit. (These are just the tactics than can be used to avoid paying out on successful claims. There are other means to avoid claims altogether – statutes of limitation, charitable immunity, and bishops’ invocation of the doctrine of corporation sole among them). To get the full story on redress, we may need to look far beyond the indemnity agreement and its successors.”

Abuse Redress, Property and the Catholic Church in Ireland (Mairéad Enright, Human Rights In Ireland)

Previously: Mercy, Mercy Me

Cardinal Timothy Dolan on Broadsheet

Pic: IntLawGrrls