ONE of the largest religious orders criticised in the Ryan report
boycotted a meeting with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn Friday,
saying it has been "misrepresented and demonised".
The Sisters of
Mercy said it had twice sought a private meeting with Mr Quinn and was
not prepared to take part in a joint meeting with the other religious
congregations.
In a statement released Friday, the sisters
delivered a ultimatum to Mr Quinn, saying that if he did not accept a
portfolio of properties offered by it as a contribution to the €1.3bn
compensation bill, then they would dispose of them elsewhere.
They
said five of the properties would be offered to various local
authorities, while two others would be sold and the proceeds given to
the new national children's hospital.
However, Mr Quinn last night
rejected the offer and said the properties were considered by his
department and the Office of Public Works and were found to not to be of
use to the state.
The order said the properties were valued at
just under €81m in December 2009.
They are expected to be worth
considerably less now.
Sister Coirle McCarthy, congregational
leader, said that in the past 10 years it had donated cash and property
worth more than €1bn without seeking public recognition.
She cited the example of the congregation's transfer of 66 secondary schools to an independent Catholic trust.
"However,
the sisters believe that they have been misrepresented and demonised in
recent years and that their congregation has been portrayed in a way
that seeks to undermine their voluntary service to this country and
beyond," she added.
Problems
Three other
orders -- the Rosminians, the Daughters of the Heart of Mary and the
Sisters of Our Lady of Charity -- were not present at the meeting at the
Department of Education in Dublin.
However, their
non-attendance was due to time-tabling problems. Some of the orders are
comparatively small and their leaders were out of the country.
As
they left the department, several of the orders described the meeting as
"constructive" and "positive" and said they had agreed to enter into
further discussions.
Addressing the orders, Mr Quinn was blunt in
his criticism, saying their offers of additional contributions were
"both individually and collectively disappointing".
He gave the
example of a congregation that proposed to transfer an old primary
school into state ownership while another offered €1m and to refund some
or all of its legal costs.
"I believe that there is a moral
responsibility on your congregations to significantly augment your
contributions. This issue will not go away," he told them.
Speaking
to reporters afterwards, Mr Quinn said he was willing to meet all the
congregations, including the Sisters of Mercy, individually.
"The
orders were at pains to indicate there was more than just themselves
involved in the administration of the institutions and I accept that and
I will now be looking at just what the implications of that are."
However,
he added: "I think the body of public opinion clearly is of the view
that there should be a fair and reasonable settlement, that 50:50 is
fair."
Mr Quinn also met a number of survivors of institutional abuse earlier in the day.
Abuse
victim Paddy Doyle, author of 'The God Squad', described it as a
"business-like meeting" and said Mr Quinn had "his hand firmly on the
pulse".
"I reckon he is genuinely listening and he is adamant he
will take on the church and the religious and get as much as he can out
of them."