Irish Catholic Church unable to foot $1.84 billion abuse bill

Irish Catholic Church unable to foot $1.84 billion abuse bill
Government vows to pursue every means possible to get the compensation

By Dara Kelly, IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Sunday, April 8, 2012

The Irish Minister for Education says that religious orders in the country found culpable in the sexual abuse of children are not able to pay their share of the compensation owed to victims.

However, he also went on to say that he is still going to pursue every means possible to get the compensation from them.

The total compensation package for victims of sexual abuse is some $1.84 billion dollars and the plan was for it to be split between Irish taxpayers and religious orders where abuse took place.

The Residential Institutions Redress Scheme is the authority that makes the awards to victims of abuse....

It now seems that the onus will be placed on the taxpayer to stump up more than the 50 percent originally planned.

Quinn is trying to get the orders to hand over deeds of schools and other property assets to redress the cash shortfall, but many of the properties are now owned by trusts and not directly by the orders.

http://www.irishcentral.com/news/news_from_ireland/Irish-Catholic-Church-unable-to-foot-19-billion-abuse-bill-146552675.html