FORMER Labour Party leader Pat Rabbitte has described the government’s 2002 agreement with religious orders that they would pay a maximum of €127 million to compensate child abuse victims as a “negligent deal” and seriously inadequate. Mr Rabbitte said the controversial deal between then minister for education Dr Michael Woods and the religious congregations was a secretive, surreptitious “ready-up” that was disproportionate to the depths of the crimes inflicted against children in church-run institutions.
The overall costs of the compensation scheme for victims of abuse in the institutions is now estimated to reach €1.3 billion, over 10 times the contribution of the congregations.
Mr Rabbitte contended no audit of assets or property owned by the congregations was carried out; that the deal ran contrary to the advice of the Department of Finance; and that the then attorney general, Michael McDowell, was excluded from negotiations.
The agreement was concluded between the religious congregations and Dr Woods a day before he stepped down from the position in 2002.
“It was a stroke in the worst meaning of that term in Irish politics,” Mr Rabbitte said on RTÉ’s Radio’s Today with Pat Kenny programme yesterday. “Michael Woods was sent out by Bertie Ahern in his last day in office to conclude this deal with the religious congregations.
“He made a deal that capped their costs at €127 million. He excluded the attorney general. He excluded the professional staff in the AG’s office.
“He did no memorandum to cabinet as is required by cabinet procedures. No memorandum was distributed to other ministers as is required.
“He did it in the knowledge that the Department of Finance had suggested that the fair apportionment would be 50/50 between the religious congregations and the State.”
Mr Rabbitte said the subsequent deal had proved to be deeply flawed. As leader of his party he had raised the issue 11 times in the Dáil during 2003, and that then taoiseach Bertie Ahern had ridiculed the notion that the costs could reach €1 billion.
However, he said it was unlikely that, despite costs now exceeding €1 billion, the deal could be revisited because the decision made by Dr Woods was not contrary to law.
“As I understand the Constitution, the minister does have the authority to go out and make a deal on behalf of the State.
“He did not do anything against the law, but he did everything that was wrong and negligent and didn’t involve the legal advice.
“No minister would go out and commit the taxpayer to a bill of €1 billion without taking the best legal advice.”
Mr Rabbitte said if the Labour Party was returned to government it would do everything in its power to “probe the validity” of the deal.
“[We will look] to see if there is any infirmity in that deal because it needs to be examined,” he said.
Mr Rabbitte said that he had no doubt that Dr Woods had made the deal at the behest of Mr Ahern.
He also pointed out that the draft of the indemnity agreement was drawn up on behalf of the religious orders in the office of solicitors Arthur Cox.
The orders, he said, had the best legal advice open to them and had negotiated a deal of “ingenuity”.
The key question, he said, was should the religious congregations now make a more proportionate contribution.
He said the indemnity deal included the facility for the orders to increase their contributions to what he said was a decent and proportionate level.
“There was no audit done of their wealth and properties. Nobody has any idea of what they could bear in this dreadful chapter in Irish history.
“The fact of the matter is that if we committed crimes like these we would be made to pay.
“The small contribution they have offered is in no way a compensation for what they have done,” he said.
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