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Friday November 26th 2004
The Department of Education is demanding an additional €7.5m in cash from 18 religious orders that signed the controversial agreement setting up the Residential Institutions Redress Board (RIRB).
The demand was made after the department refused to accept 20 of the properties offered to the State by the orders as part of the deal.
The revelation was made yesterday at a meeting of the Dail's influential Public Accounts Committee by John Dennehy, secretary general of the Department of Education.
The deal with the 18 orders that ran the country's residential institutions requires them to hand over to the State cash and property to the value of €128m.
Mr Dennehy told the committee that although his department has accepted 62 properties valued at €71.21m on behalf of the State, this leaves a shortfall of almost €7.5m in what was agreed.
He said the department has recently written to the solicitors for the congregations and "proposed that they should now offer a cash sum in order to finalise the property aspect of the agreement".
He said he was "confident that this aspect of the agreement will be finalised in the very near future".
Mr Dennehy also told the committee that in addition to the 62 properties it has accepted, another 20 have been turned down because they were unsuitable. He said this was evidence of the tough line it has been taking with the orders.
Mr Dennehy also confirmed that the State has already received full payment of the cash end of the agreement from the religious orders. This amounted to over €40m.
The RIRB was established two years ago following an agreement between the State and the religious orders.
In return for contributing €128m to the redress scheme, the 18 orders were given a full indemnity by the State against any claims for compensation that are made against them in court up until the end of 2008.
The Comptroller and Auditor General, John Purcell, also repeated his prediction the RIRB could end up paying out between €700m and €880m in compensation to abuse claimants. To date, €156m has been paid out.
David Quinn
Religious Correspondent
© Irish Independent
