MOST of the religious congregations have now offered to make an extra contribution to the Exchequer in the wake of the devastating Ryan Report.The Government is seeking cash contributions instead of properties, which formed the bulk of the €128m handed over to the State in 2002 -- in return for indemnity against future legal actions.
The Government has also received a report from the valuation panel headed by former Revenue chairman Frank Daly, which has assessed the financial resources of the religious congregations.
The Government has paid out over €1.2bn under the redress scheme to compensate abuse victims -- 10 times what the religious orders paid.
The Public Accounts committee heard yesterday that the State had also underestimated the number of abuse cases in religious-run orphanages and industrial schools.
This was the main reason the budget for the Child Abuse Commission spiralled from €2.5m to more than €130m.
The majority of the bill for the commission's work was accounted to by lawyers' fees.
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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.
SIC: II