Saturday July 23 2011

ONE of the largest religious orders criticised in the Ryan report boycotted a meeting with Education Minister Ruairi Quinn yesterday, 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 yesterday, 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 yesterday. 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.”

- Breda Heffernan

Irish Independent

5th July, 2011 ?
Minister Quinn expresses disappointment at level of contributions offered by religious congregations to meet costs of residential institutional child abuse and seeks meetings.

The Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn T.D., is announcing how the government plans to progress issues raised in the follow up to the Ryan Report. The following matters are being addressed:

Contributions towards the costs of the Response to Redress by the 18 religious congregations:
The Statutory Fund
The future of the Redress Board The Memorial Committee
Contributions Towards the Costs of the Response to Redress

The final cost of the response to residential institutional child abuse is estimated to be in the region of €1.36 billion. The Government believes that this cost should be shared on a 50:50 basis, between the taxpayer and those responsible for managing the institutions where horrendous child abuse took place.
However, the offers from the religious congregations to date have fallen far short of the amount needed. Under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement, the 18 congregations involved agreed to provide a contribution of €128 million, comprising cash, property and counselling services.

In 2009, they proposed putting up just over €100 million in cash and offered to transfer property, mainly in the health and education sectors, that they valued at €235.5 million, to various State agencies and voluntary organisations.

Responding to these proposals, Minister Quinn acknowledged some progress had been made, but expressed his disappointment at the offers to date.

“Of the properties offered to the State, only 12 have been identified as of potential immediate benefit to the State and these will be pursued. In fact, only a quarter of the total property offers made to date by the congregations are of current interest to the State. The value of these 12 properties, based on the congregations’ own valuations, is approximately €60 million,” said Minister Quinn.

Minister Quinn also followed up on the call in April 2010 by the last government for the religious congregations to augment their original contribution of €348.5 million in order to meet half of the costs of the response to residential institutional child abuse. He has written to them seeking a meeting to discuss their response to date.

“Despite the State’s call for the congregations to supplement their original offers, only two out of the 18 congregations have replied positively to make up a shortfall of some €200 million. One congregation has offered to give €1 million towards the costs of the National Children’s Hospital and to refund some or all of its legal costs, while another offered to transfer a former primary school. None of the other congregations have supplemented their original offers,” said Minister Quinn.

“The congregations’ total offers fall well short, by several hundred million, of the €680 million contribution they should bear towards the cost of institutional residential child abuse. In April, I called on the orders to consider handing over appropriate school infrastructure as a way to make progress towards the 50:50 target contribution. I reiterate that call now.”

With the Government’s approval, Minister Quinn proposes to seek the congregations’ agreement to a legal mechanism which would ensure that title to school infrastructure properties would be transferred to the State, at the State’s request, and that title to such properties could not be altered, whether by sale on the open market or by transfer into any Trust arrangement, without the prior consent of the Department.

In addition, the Government is requesting the congregations to offer to transfer their properties that are currently rented by the State and properties that are identified as being of specific interest to the State. This overall approach will aim to ensure that if the State were to seek the transfer of any of the school infrastructure owned by the congregations, it could then do so.

Commenting on this proposal, the Minister noted “I recognise that there are complex legal issues to be addressed to realise the transfer of school infrastructure. Nevertheless I believe that this approach affords the congregations involved the opportunity to shoulder their share of the costs of responding to the horrendous wrongs suffered by children in their care, while at the same time, recognising the legitimate legacy of their contribution to Irish education.”

The management bodies of other institutions included within the Redress Scheme have also been approached to make a contribution towards the costs involved and their potential to similarly transfer school infrastructure will be explored.

Statutory Fund
The Government is to proceed with legislation to establish a Residential Institutions Statutory Fund, to support the victims of residential institutional abuse, as endorsed by the Dáil in the aftermath of the Ryan Report. This follows extensive consultations with survivors of residential abuse and the groups which support them, together with a public consultation process.

Some €110 million, essentially the cash portion of the offers from the congregations, will be used to fund the trust. Announcing the measure, Minister Quinn said, “Over 13,000 former residents who have received awards from the Residential Institutions Redress Board will be eligible to apply for support from the Fund and every effort is being made to minimise the administration involved. Some former residents advocate a simple distribution of the available money. However, I believe that the Fund should target resources at services to support former residents’ needs, such as counselling, psychological support services and mental health services, health and personal social services, educational services and housing services.”
To date, contributions of €20.6m have been received towards the Statutory Fund. These and the remaining contributions to be received will be invested in an investment account to be established by the National Treasury Management Agency.
The Education Finance Board will be dissolved and the Statutory Fund will assume its functions to disburse the remaining moneys. As responsibility for information for survivors will also be taken on by the Statutory Fund, funding of survivor groups by the Department of Education will cease.

Redress Board
The Residential Institutions Redress Board will be wound down. The Board was set-up in 2002 to provide fair and reasonable financial awards to victims of institutional childhood abuse. The original closing date for receipt of applications under the Redress Scheme was December, 2005, although the Board can accept late applications in exceptional circumstances.

As it is now almost six years since the original closing date and as it is necessary to remove the Board’s power to consider late applications in order to wind-up the Redress Board, the Government has approved the drafting of amending legislation. The Minister expects to enact the necessary legislation to remove the Board’s power to consider late applications received after 16th September 2011. The Minister thanked the Redress Board and its chair, Judge Esmond Smyth, for their work to date.

Memorial Committee
The Memorial Committee appointed to oversee the erection of a memorial to victims of institutional abuse, as recommended in the Ryan Report, has reported to the Minister on its work to date. This involved a public consultation process and meetings with survivor groups and other interested parties. The Minister has approved the Committee’s proposal to advance to the competition stage for the Memorial and the Committee will now seek expressions of interest.
Minister Quinn will shortly be meeting with groups representing survivors of residential institutional abuse and representatives of the religious congregations in relation to the measures announced today.
ENDS
Note for Editors:
Please see below link to the contribution offers from congregations:

http://www.education.ie/servlet/blobservlet/riru_cong_offers.pdf?language=EN

The congregations offer towards redress:
Under the 2002 Indemnity Agreement, 18 congregations are providing a contribution of €128m comprising cash, property and counselling services. The realisation of this contribution is being pursued and while the completion of the legal arrangements in the case of 24 properties remains outstanding, the physical transfers of these properties have taken place.

In response to the call for them to make further substantial additional contributions following the publication of the Ryan Report, 16 of the 18 Congregations offered additional contributions which they valued at €348.51m and which included various property transfer proposals, valued at €235.51m, to different State bodies and voluntary organisations. One congregation offered 16 properties to the Statutory Fund.
The property offers to the State have now been considered and 12 of these have been identified to be of immediate potential benefit to the State. The Government has agreed that these property offers be pursued, subject to suitability, valuation and good and marketable title being established. The overall aggregate value of these properties amounts to some €60m of the overall €235.51m property valuations from the congregations. The other property offers were not considered to be of immediate interest to the State.
The State has already decided to utilise €110m, essentially the cash element of the congregations’ offers to establish a Statutory Fund to support the needs of survivors of residential institutional child abuse. Accordingly, the government is requesting that these properties be sold and the proceeds provided to the State. In relation to the offers of property to the voluntary sector, only one of the 16 properties the religious offered has been deemed of benefit to the State, and therefore the Government cannot count the other property offers as part of the contribution towards the response to residential institutional abuse.
In 2010, recognising the potential shortfall of over €200m to reach the 50% share of some €680m, the previous Government called on the congregations to augment their offers so as to realise the 50:50 objective.

Since then, one congregation has offered to provide €1m towards the costs of the National Children’s Hospital and to refund some or all of its legal costs, while another has offered to transfer a former primary school. The remaining congregations have made no additional offers to the government.
Redress Board: ?In 2010, the then Government considered a range of demands for the Redress Scheme to be extended and for awards to be reviewed and decided not to revise the arrangements. By the end of May 2011, the Board had processed 14,592 of the 15,135 applications received. It had made 13,669 awards with an overall average award of €62,875. The Board had 543 applications to finalise and 567 late applications to consider accepting. The overall cost of the Redress Scheme is expected to be some €1.1 billion of the €1.36 billion total cost of the response to residential institutional child abuse and actual expenditure exceeded €1 billion at the end of 2010.

A report on the consultation process and the General Scheme of the Residential Institutions Statutory Fund Bill are available on the website of the Department of Education and Skills.

Dear Mr Doyle,

The Minister for Education and Skills, Mr Ruairí Quinn, T.D., has asked me to refer to your email of 15th April regarding the proposed Statutory Fund, the contents of which have been noted. While the Minister is unfortunately not in a position to meet with you at this time, he has asked me to outline the current position in relation to the proposed Statutory Fund.

As you are aware, following the announcement of the proposal to utilise €110 million of the contributions being offered by the religious congregations to establish a Statutory Fund to support the needs of survivors, the Department undertook a detailed consultation process. Officials met with you on 16th June, 2010 and your submission on the proposed Statutory Fund of 25th August, 2010 was considered. Meetings were held with survivor representatives, religious congregations and other interested parties. In addition, over 250 individual responses were received in response to newspaper advertisements which invited views on the specific needs facing survivors and how the Fund could operate to assist in meeting those needs. As was noted in the advertisements, the Fund is separate and distinct from the compensation scheme operated by the independent Residential Institutions Redress Board, which provides fair and reasonable awards to victims of institutional childhood abuse.

Having considered the views expressed during the consultation process, the Department prepared proposals together with a General Scheme of a Bill to provide for the Statutory Fund. These proposals will now be considered by the Minister and the Government.

The position in relation to the cash contributions is that the sum of €20.6 million has been received and placed in a special interest bearing account in the Central Bank pending the establishment of the Statutory Fund. The remaining congregations are awaiting confirmation that the legislation will provide for the charitable status of their contributions to the Fund or sight of the proposed terms and structure of the Fund, prior to making their initial cash contributions. The offers of contributions envisaged that these contributions would be made over a period of years.

There will be further contact with you following the Government’s consideration of the proposals.

Yours sincerely,

Ronnie Ryan
Private Secretary

Dear Paddy,

I have sought legal advice on the matter.

The position of the Labour Party is as follow:

First, there was no change of mind by the Labour Party on its Institutional Child Abuse Bill 2009, which was debated by the Dáil on the 7th and 8th July 2009. Nor was there any all party agreement.

Labour’s Bill was put to a vote and was defeated by the Government parties.

Second, there is a limited degree of all party agreement as to the disbursal of the additional contributions due from the religious congregations.

All parties agreed unanimously to a motion which: “notes that both in the meetings with former residents and the congregations support was expressed for the proposal that the use of a further substantial contribution from the congregations should include a form of independent trust to be set up by the State which would be available to support the needs of survivors for general education and welfare purposes”.

However, we await further details as to the manner of proposed operation of this independent trust.

Best regards

Joan Burton TD.
Deputy Leader of the Labour Party.