THE man who negotiated the controversial compensation deal for abuse victims said he stands by the agreement, as senior Church figures stand firm against plans to increase the amount of money it has to pay out.Former education minister Michael Woods signed the deal with the Catholic Church in 2002, which capped its liability for child abuse compensation at€127 million.
There have been calls for the deal to be renegotiated in light of the shocking findings of the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse report published earlier this week. The compensation bill is now running at €1.2 billion.
Current Minister for Education Batt O’Keeffe has ruled out such a move, while former taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he stood by the original deal. However, campaigners and the opposition have demanded that the Church foot more of the bill for compensation to victims.
Mr Woods yesterday said he had no regrets over the compensation deal and that a report by the Public Accounts Committee published in 2005 had found the agreement had not been a "sweetheart deal".
Speaking on Breakfast on Newstalk with Ivan Yates and Claire Byrne, he said the deal meant money had been saved by not bringing people before the courts.
"The deal was the best that could be done for the state without prolonged court proceedings involving the victims and the Government was not prepared to bring the victims into court," he said.
"It was magnanimous, the terms of it would be much simpler, there was no proof required," he said.
But Mr Woods received fierce criticism from Labour justice spokesman, Pat Rabbitte, who called for an independent investigation into the agreement negotiated in 2002.
"I am suggesting everything about it was unorthodox," Mr Rabbitte said, claiming there was no cabinet memorandum and that cabinet procedures were not observed.
"The deal was capped at a figure that was ridiculous. The fact of the matter was this was, of course, a sweetheart deal.
"What they did was they excluded the Attorney General, they excluded the experts... They went out and they did the deal without legal advice and entered into an indemnity that gave unlimited exposure to the taxpayer and capped the contribution from the religious organisations at IR£100m ," Mr Rabbitte added.
"It was just a bad deal for the taxpayer."
Mr Woods said any possibility of revisiting the deal was a matter for Government but added that he did not regret the agreement. He said that if the religious orders decided to make further contributions to the ongoing situation that was a matter for them.
He also denied that he had ignored advice from the Department of Finance and said Mr Rabbitte was "playing politics" with the issue.
Later, on RTÉ radio, Mr Rabbitte described the deal as "a stroke".
The Conference of Religious in Ireland (CORI) has said it is unaware of plans by religious orders to renegotiate the deal with the Government which caps their contribution to the compensation scheme for victims of abuse.
The Christian Brothers has said the deal was made in good faith, while CORI – which facilitated the 18 orders in making the agreement – said it was not aware that any of them was planning a re-negotiation.
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