PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent Irish Times 13/06/09

THE TOTAL cost of institutional child abuse is likely to reach €1.4 billion, of which as much as €400 million could consist of legal costs, informed sources have indicated.

It has also emerged that the €127 million which 18 religious orders agreed in 2002 to contribute to a State redress scheme has not even covered legal fees at the Residential Institutions Redress Board to date.

It has further emerged that likely legal costs to the State following dealings by the 18 orders with the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse will be between €34 million and €44 million.

As of May 20th last, the publication date of the Ryan report, the redress board had paid out legal costs of €138.5 million to solicitors’ firms, of which €11 million was paid following associated High Court proceedings.

Of the outstanding legal fees yet to be paid by the State following legal representation for the 18 religious orders at the Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse, it is estimated that €20 million is due to firms which represented the Christian Brothers.

The Brothers were the largest provider of residential care for boys in the State over the period investigated by the commission. Artane industrial school in Dublin and Letterfrack industrial school in Galway, both among the largest such institutions in the State, were under their management.

An additional €12 million to €15 million is believed due to legal firms which represented the Sisters of Mercy at the commission. They ran 26 industrial schools during the period investigated.

Between €5 million and €8 million is thought due to firms which represented the Sisters of Charity, who ran five industrial schools, including St Joseph’s and St Patrick’s in Kilkenny and a group home, Madonna House, in Dublin.

For the Oblates of Mary Immaculate, who ran the Daingean reformatory in Co Offaly, the legal bill is estimated at being between €5 million and €8 million also.

For the Rosminians, who ran Upton reformatory in Cork and Ferryhouse industrial school near Clonmel, Co Tipperary, the legal bill is expected to be more than €4 million, while that for the Good Shepherd Sisters is expected to be about €2 million.

They ran four industrial schools and a reformatory school in Limerick. Costs for the remaining orders are expected to be less, as was their involvement in running residential institutions for children over the period.

Meanwhile the Archbishop of Dublin, Most Rev Diarmuid Martin, has said that, following publication of the Ryan Report, “there are questions to be asked regarding how much Irish devotional practice in general had drifted away from the fundamental fact that God is love.”

Speaking in Dublin last night, he said: “We have to ask to what extent the punitive and humiliating culture which seems to have developed in some such institutions was due to the fact that we had drifted away from the God who is love into one inspired by a punitive, judgemental God; a God whose love was the love of harsh parents, where punishment became the primary instrument of love.”

COST OF ABUSE

- Total estimated cost €1.4 billion

- Total estimated legal fees up €400 million

- Total cost of RIRB awards €1.2 billion , of which legal fees will make up approx. €167 million

- Total estimated cost of CICA (Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse) – almost all legal fees approx €11 million

- Average Award at RIRB €83,320

Sunday Tribune 14/9/08
Ken Foxe Public Affairs Correspondent

TEN solicitors have made more than €1 million each representing the victims of sexual and physical abuse at state institutions.

The legal firms have raked in colossal fees for their work with the Residential Institutions Redress Board, in some cases being paid more per case than the victims.

The top earning solicitor’s firm has taken in an astonishing €9.1 million in the last three years for which records are available, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

Michael Hanahoe & Company earned more than €4 million in both 2005 and 2006 representing dozens of clients before the Redress Board.

The notoriously secretive Redress Board said they would not provide the most recent figures for 2007 saying they “did not engage with the media.”

A spokeswoman for the organisation said they were not subject to the Freedom of Information Act and that details of payments to lawyers would only be published in their forthcoming annual report.

Documents examined by the Sunday Tribune show that 10 firms have made more than €1 million each out of a total pot of €97 million, which has been paid out since the Redress Board was set up six years ago.

The next highest earners after Hanahoe were the Dublin-based firm of Lavelle Coleman, which has earned a total of €8.9 million from representing victims of abuse.

In third place was the firm of Margaret Campbell, which raked in a total of €3.457 million during those three years.

Some familiar names have also made the list with Gallagher Shatter, the law firm of Fine Gael’s Alan Shatter, earning close to €460,000.

Controversial Limerick solicitor John Devane has earned a total of €580,930 from the Redress Board but neither he nor Shatter made the Top Ten list.

Solicitors have earned on average €12,255 for each case that they’ve taken on behalf of the victims, according to the latest figures.

John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse said: “Even the victims of very serious abuse are now getting derisory amounts for what they suffered. This was never about making solicitors money but unfortunately that is what has happened. “Many solicitors are operating on a no-win, no-fee basis but there is nothing for free as the government and the taxpayer are picking up the bill.

“Some of the victims are getting €4,000 or €5,000 for their cases, which would mean that the victims are getting less than the solicitors in certain instances.”
Top 10 Earners

Michael Hanahoe: €9,167,855

Lavelle Coleman: €8,917,899

Margaret Campbell: €3,457,319

Murphy, English & Co: €3,035,704

Peter McDonnell & Associates: €2,629,952

Madden & Associates: €2,528,383

Hodge, Jones & Allen: €2,297,542

Pearse Mehigan & Co: €2,124,481

Paul W Tracey: €1,368,243

Matthew Gold & Co: €1,120,175