Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin
Question:198 Caoimhghín Ó Caoláin asked the Minister for Education and Science the estimate of the cost to the State of the indemnity agreement in relation to abuse in institutions run by religious orders. [9114/04]
View answerTuesday, 23 March 2004
Questions (198)
Written answers
The indemnity agreement to which the Deputy refers is the agreement between the State and 18 religious congregations that was signed on 5 June 2002. Under the agreement, the congregations made a contribution of €128 million to the residential institutions redress fund and, in return for this contribution, the previous Government agreed to grant an indemnity to the congregations that were parties to the agreement.
The indemnity applies only to cases which are eligible to be dealt with under the terms of the Residential Institutions Redress Act 2002 but which are not resolved within this scheme and in respect of which litigation is commenced within six years of the date of the agreement. In the event of a congregation deciding to run a case itself, then the indemnity will not apply.
It is hoped that the vast majority of cases will be dealt with by the Residential Institutions Redress Board rather than through the courts. Therefore, it is expected that the indemnity will apply to relatively few cases. However, as there is no way to predict at this time how many claimants will opt to go through the courts rather than the redress board, I am not in a position to estimate the likely cost of the indemnity to the State. However, to date, the indemnity has been invoked in settling just three cases. Furthermore, the settlements that were reached in these three cases were all well within the parameters of the awards that can be made by the redress board.