SEVENTEEN OF the 18 religious congregations party to the 2002 redress agreement with the State are now understood to have presented details of their financial position to the Government, as agreed by them following publication of the Ryan report last May.The remaining congregation,which is one of the smaller ones, has been hampered by the illness of a relevant person from meeting the latest, mid-July, deadline agreed.
It is understood to be at an advanced stage in preparing its financial details for presentation to the Government.
The Christian Brothers congregation presented its financial details to the Government before the deadline.
Fine Gael spokesman on children Alan Shatter has called on both the Government and the congregations “to publicly state the reason for the delays that have occurred”.
He also called on the Government “to state when it is envisaged the promised information relating to the various orders and congregations’ financial status will be published and by what date it anticipates it will be in a position to announce the proposed additional financial contribution to be made by religious orders both towards the redress fund and for inclusion in the proposed trust fund”.
He said that “the continuing extension of deadlines originally given and the Government’s failure to appoint the promised panel of ‘three eminent independent persons’ to assess the financial information received, together with any relevant backup material, reflects the haphazard and deferential approach taken in the past by Government when dealing with religious orders and congregations”.
On June 5th last, at a meeting with Taoiseach Brian Cowen and senior members of the Cabinet, representatives of the 18 congregations agreed that an independent report on their financial position would be presented to the Government on June 24th.
They also agreed at that June 5th meeting to contribute to a trust the Taoiseach proposed be set up, so that further financial and other supports could be provided to people who, as children, had been in institutions they managed.
The congregations further committed themselves to identifying resources, “both financial and other, within a transparent process, with a view to delivering upon commitments made today”.
However some of the congregations missed the June 24th deadline for presentation of details of their financial position and requested that they be allowed until September to do so. They were given until mid-July.
At that June 24th meeting the Government also announced it would appoint a panel of three people to assess the financial details submitted by the orders. Those appointments have not yet been made.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to us or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that we agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Source (IT)
SV (3)