Tag Archives: redress

McAleese

Martin McAleese with McAleese Inquiry into Magdalene laundries in February 2013

Further to the 2002 indemnity deal signed between then Minister for Education Dr Michael Woods and 18 congregations which capped the congregations’ abuse liability at €128million.

And last week’s Comptroller and Auditor General report which shows the congregations have paid just 13% of the €1.5billion compensation fund for victims of abuse who were residents of religious institutions.

And the McAleese Inquiry into the Magalene laundries which was chaired by Martin McAleese and published on Tuesday, February 5, 2013.

This morning.

In the Irish Examiner.

Conall Ó Fátharta writes:

A religious order that ran two Magdalene Laundries told the Government that its decision not to contribute any money to the redress scheme for survivors was based on the findings of the McAleese Report.

…To date, the four orders that ran Magdalene Laundries — the Sisters of Mercy, Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of Refuge, the Good Shepherd Sisters, and the Sisters of Charity — have refused to contribute any money to the redress scheme set up in 2013 to compensate women.

The McAleese committee had no remit to investigate allegations of torture or other criminal offences that occurred in the laundries.

However, the Government in its August 2013 letter to the UN Committee against Torture said that, based on the McAleese committee’s interviewing of 118 ex-residents, “no factual evidence to support allegations of systematic torture or ill-treatment of a criminal nature in these institutions was found”.

Documents released under Freedom of Information show the Government wrote to the orders in February 2013 asking them to formally contribute to the redress fund. It wrote again in January 2014.

All four orders stated they would not contribute any money to the scheme.

Regional leader of the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity Sr Sheila Murphy responded on three occasions to then justice minister Alan Shatter stating its decision not to contribute was made after examining the findings of the McAleese Report.

Meanwhile…

On February 7, 2013:

Conor Ryan, in the Irish Examiner, reported:

The four religious orders who established and ran the for-profit laundries have substantial assets and it’s for this reason that the Justice For Magdalenes group (JFM) are arguing that the €296m made in property deals during the boom by these four orders must form part of a redress package. Many of the sites the orders haven’t sold and hold on their balance sheets continue to raise revenue by selling services to the State.

Three of the four orders that ran the laundries have earned €86m from the HSE from services provided on these sites in the past six years up to last year.

Previously: Did Your Nan Leave Money To The Nuns?

Religious orders rebuffed appeal for clerical abuse redress payout (Conall Ó Fátharta, Irish Examiner, March 14, 2017)

Substantial assets, but no more cash for redress (Conor Ryan, Irish Examiner, February 7, 2013)

The Magdalene Report: A Conclusion

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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

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Marie O’Connor, chair of the Survivors of Symphysiotomy, with members of her group and supporters outside the Department of the Taoiseach in September 2014

Paul Cullen, in the Irish Times, is reporting that 53 women, who sought €150,000 compensation under the State redress scheme for women who had a symphysiotomy, have been told they won’t receive the money as it “was established they did not undergo the procedure”.

Mr Cullen also reports that retired judge Maureen Harding Clark, who has been assessing the claims, has warned that she might set a deadline for the furnishing of records “as ‘the scheme does not have an unlimited life’”.

Meanwhile, Mr Cullen reports:

“[Ms Clark] said she understood some women have been unable to establish their belief they had a symphysiotomy because their records are not readily available.”
…
“Survivors of Symphysiotomy, a group representing women who had the procedure, said the scheme sets an “impossible” level of proof.”
…
“One woman was asked for receipts for incontinence pads she bought in the 1950s, [Marie] O’Connor claimed.”

Hmmm.

Symphysiotomy compensation refused to 53 women (Paul Cullen, Irish Times)

Government’s so-called “non-adversarial” scheme places impossible and unjust burden of proof on survivors of symphysiotomy (Survivors of Symphysiotomy)

Magdalene Further to the news that the four religious orders that Martin McAleese investigated – the Mercy Sisters, the Sisters of Our Lady of Charity, the Sisters of Charity and the Good Shepherd Sisters – are refusing to contribute to the Magdalene Laundry redress scheme, which is estimated to cost €58million, the Magdalene Survivors Together group is calling on Catholics to boycott mass.

RTÉ reports:

“Irish Catholics have been urged to boycott weekend Masses in protest at the refusal of the congregations of nuns which owned Magdalene laundries to contribute to the redress fund for survivors of the institutions.”

“The call has been made by the Magdalene Survivors Together group which also accuses Taoiseach Enda Kenny of siding with the orders on the issue.”

“In a statement, the group’s spokesman, Steven O’Riordan, said survivors need the public’s support because the Government is “totally out of its depth”.

“He also called on ministers to exempt the women from the Statute of Limitations so that they can sue the four congregations concerned.”

 

Catholics urged to boycott mass over Magdalene fund (RTÉ)

Pic: Gloucester Street Magdalenes via Limerick Museum

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Doubts have emerged on whether Magdalene women who have previously received compensation because they resided in industrial schools or other institutions will qualify for further payment under the new scheme.

The president of the Law Reform Commission, Mr Justice John Quirke (above) is to recommend criteria to be applied when assessing provision in terms of “payments” and supports such as medical cards and counselling services to the Magdalene women.

A Department of Justice spokeswoman said the issue of further compensation for women who were sent to the laundries from industrial schools – and were thus compensated by the State Redress Board – “will be considered by Judge Quirke”.

Support groups for the Magdalene women said it would be difficult to quantify the number of women who received compensation through the Redress Board – but Claire McGettrick of Justice for Magdalenes said it would be “at least dozens”.

She said “without exception” every woman she had spoken to who had dealt with the Redress Board had been told “not to speak” about being compensated for time spent in laundries. “One woman told me that her solicitor just drew a red line through her time in the laundry.”

Tough gig, your honour.

Tough gig.

New redress scheme may not include all Magdalenes (Mary Minihan, Colin Gleeson, Irish Times)

(Laura Hutton/Photocall Ireland)