Religious bodies who have declined to contribute towards a redress scheme for survivors of mother and baby homes have assets worth more than a billion euro.
The Department of Children had asked religious orders to pay €267m towards the scheme. However, only two of eight religious bodies linked to mother and baby homes in Ireland have offered to contribute, a report has revealed.
The Sisters of Bon Secours offered €12.97m - a sum deemed meaningful and accepted by the Government.
Another body - the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul - has proposed contributing a building to the scheme. That offer is to be considered by the Government.
A third religious body - the Sisters of St John of God - declined to contribute to the scheme but did offer a conditional donation of €75,000 to be used instead for a charitable purpose associated with mother and baby home survivors.
The remaining five bodies - the Congregation of Lady of the Good Shepherd; the Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary; the Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy; the Legion of Mary; and the Church of Ireland - made no offer of contribution.
Taoiseach Micheál Martin said it was disappointing that just two offers had been made during the negotiations and that the Attorney General was now considering options available to the Government.
"It is very, very disappointing that only two have made any sort of meaningful responses," the Taoiseach told the Dáil.
"The minister has gone back to the organisations to say, there's a period of time here, if you wish to reconsider. The Attorney General, meanwhile, is examining options.”
Children’s Minister Norma Foley will now discuss the next steps with the Attorney General in light of just one religious order making a substantial cash offer to the scheme.
The details were contained in a report compiled by Sheila Nunan, the independent negotiator appointed by the Government to consult with the organisations over financial redress.
The report into the scheme outlines the contributions which were sought from each organisation and a calculation of their assets at the end of 2023, which was conducted by EY.
The Sisters of Bon Secours offer aligns with an ask of €12.97m that had been sought by the department.
The EY report found that the organisation had €106.8m in assets at the end of 2023, alongside €1.3m in cash.
The Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul (DCSVP), which has offered the building, had been asked to make a contribution of up to €81m. The EY report found it had around €7.35m in the bank and around €90m in assets at the end of 2023.
The report states that the DCSVP was reluctant to make a contribution as it had provided 19 million euro (£16.2 million) to the Residential Institutions Redress Scheme in respect of the St Patrick’s/Pelletstown institution.
It said the order was made up of employees and not trustees, that the home was owned by the state, and that it needed to be in a position to fund its ongoing work.
The Sisters of St John of God, which offered the 75,000 euro donation, had been asked to contribute 5.2 million euro (£4.45 million), with combined assets in the range of 55.7 million euro (£47.7 million) and cash of 6.8 million euro (£5.8 million).
The order said there was no basis – “legal or moral” – to demand it to participate in the scheme as there was “no evidence that our sisters there acted in any untoward manner”. It said the donation was made on the basis that it was not presented as a contribution or as part of a “moral or ethical obligation” towards those survivors.
The following is a breakdown relating to the remaining organisations, which made no offer under the scheme.
The Congregation of Lady of the Good Shepherd was asked for €10.46m; with assets of €75.8m and more than €2.4m in the bank. It said it would not be making a contribution as it could not afford to and it did not believe it had an ethical or moral reason to do so.
The Congregation of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary was asked for €96.5m with assets worth €5.8m and €200,000 in the bank, with an associated UK charity having €32.4m in assets and €1.75m in cash.
The Congregation of the Sisters of Mercy was asked for €21m, with roughly €320m in assets and approximately €24m in assets.
The Legion of Mary was asked for €26.2m with €1.8m in assets and and €1.5m in cash.
The Church of Ireland was asked for almost €14m with €632m in assets and €40m in cash.
Various bodies objected to their inclusion in the report by stating they may not have a legal or moral obligation to pay, that the institutions referenced were not controlled or governed by them, or that the publicly available financial information may be incomplete.
In her report, Ms Nunan said: “Certain organisations rejected any assertion that they might have a legal and/or moral responsibility for the running of the institutions.
The negotiation process was part of a bid to secure contributions from religious bodies towards the cost of the Government-established Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme.
Ms Foley expressed disappointment at the approach adopted by the majority of religious bodies to the mother and baby home redress scheme.
"While acknowledging the financial contribution by the Sisters of Bon Secours, I believe that much more could have been done by the other religious bodies concerned. I would encourage other religious bodies to reflect further on their willingness to make a meaningful contribution to the payment scheme and note that my department is available to engage with them on this matter at any stage."
“I am calling on the religious orders to think again, to look at what has been done by some orders, and to think afresh and to think anew. One way or another, religious orders were involved in the day to day running of these facilities. So, I am asking them to consider the situation once again."
The minister said Attorney General Rossa Fanning would now consider “what avenues are open to [the Government] going forward”.
“In the interim, there is an opportunity for the orders to reconsider their positions. But be under no illusion, this is also on the table of the Attorney General,” Ms Foley said.
The offer of a property was received from the Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent de Paul and the Government has agreed the minister should consider the offer.
While the property’s value is not known, the report outlines that the building is currently in for the running of a community-based high-support school for children considered at risk.
The current use of the property does not make it more complicated for the Government if the minister chooses to accept the offer.
“It just means that there's a job of work and exploration to do there as to how viable it is, what the building might be worth. We don't reject the offer. We take the advice of the of the negotiator who said it should be explored,” Ms Foley said.
She added that said the total cost of the negotiating process had been approximately €175,000, with €155,000 of that going towards the services of EY.