IT’S TIME TO take the gloves off and force religious orders to pay redress to their victims, according to Labour leader Ivana Bacik.
Her party has put forward a Bill that seeks to enact landmark legislation to ensure that religious institutions, associated trusts, and other unincorporated organisations be held liable for historic child sexual abuse committed in their care.
Tánaiste Simon Harris, when Taoiseach, said he expected those who speak Christianity to practice it, stating that the government has “levers” to ensure the religious orders pay up.
He said last year that he had asked the Attorney General to draft legal advice for government about what mechanisms can be deployed or what legislation could be introduced to make sure that institutions have to contribute towards redress.
However, since then, there has been no progress with the legislation.
Bacik said in her previous life as a barrister, she represented many survivors of abuse in industrial schools, and she described the residential institutions redress board as “a flawed process” that has been subject to much critique.
“One of the key issues was that the religious orders simply were not not paying their share of the redress… what has happened over decades is that religious orders have transferred their assets to lay-run trusts,” she said.
An example is the government-established Mother and Baby Institutions Payment Scheme, which sought for religious bodies to contribute around €270m to the costs.
However, only two of eight religious bodies linked to Mother and Baby Homes in Ireland offered to contribute.
The Sisters of Bon Secours offered €12.97m, while the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul proposed contributing a building to the scheme.
Since then, there is a whole new cohort of people who have come forward with claims of abuse, with Bacik mentioning David and Mark Ryan, who were featured in the RTÉ’s Doc on One programme ‘Blackrock Boys’.
‘Tip of the iceberg’
In more recent times, claims have “absolutely exploded”, said Bacik, noting that the new scoping inquiry into sexual abuse in schools run by religious orders identified 42 religious orders, over 300 schools and 3,000 allegations.
“And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.”
“So we drafted a bill to enable proceedings to be taken against an unincorporated body, which is the legal status of a religious order, so that survivors or the State can pursue for unpaid redress,” she said.
Bacik said there shouldn’t be a delay in taking action, stating that she believes this sort of legislation can run parallel to the Commission of Investigation into the Handling of Historical Child Sexual Abuse in Schools, which is ongoing.
The commission will investigate the handling of allegations or concerns of historical child sexual abuse in all day and boarding schools in Ireland, including special schools, which occurred between 1927 and 2013.
“I’m disappointed that the lack of action by government, because, in fact, I spoke in the Dáil two years ago on this, and the then-minister said he was very interested, and said that he would go to the Attorney General and look for advice… nothing’s happened since the scoping inquiry was established,” she said.
“For decades, successive governments and ministers have gone cap in hand to the religious orders, and frankly, it’s time for gloves off. No more of this asking nicely, because the religious orders are digging their heels in. They’re protecting their assets, and it’s just not good enough.
“We need this legal mechanism to be able to get behind these legal entities, and be able to secure a redress for survivors. We know the wealth religious orders and their trusts are sitting on is huge,” the Labour leader said.
Almost all religious orders in Ireland have millions of euros in cash and assets. The eight religious bodies with historical involvement in mother and baby homes have combined net assets of €1.32 billion and cash deposits of €86 million.
In a statement from the Department of Education regarding where progress is when it comes to legislation, a spokesperson said the scoping inquiry into historical sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders, a Commission of Investigation has been established by the government.
They noted that inquiry’s report also recognised the significance of the issue of redress for survivors and their expressed wish that those running schools where child sexual abuse occurred should be held accountable financially.
“It recommended that consideration be given by the government to establishing a redress scheme for survivors. The high-level Inter Departmental Group (IDG) established to advise Government on the recommendations of the Scoping Inquiry also recognised redress as an important element of accountability for survivors and advised in its report that, based on knowledge of other schemes in the State and beyond, further detailed research and data analysis work needs to be undertaken on the consideration of any potential redress scheme that may be established in the future.
“This work is ongoing and will continue in parallel to the work of the Commission, which does not have a role in relation to redress.
“Given the complex issues involved, it is clear that further analysis and significant legal consideration will be required in assessing any proposed legislation to be brought forward in this regard,” the concluded.