Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 21 Oct 2003

Vol. 572 No. 6

Written Answers. - Child Abuse.

Phil Hogan

Ceist:

238 Mr. Hogan asked the Minister for Education and Science the details to date relating to the invocation of the indemnity clause that was agreed between him and CORI concerning compensation for alleged institutional abuse; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [24236/03]

Minister for Education and Science (Mr. N. Dempsey)

Under the terms of the indemnity agreement between the State and 18 religious congregations, the State party agreed to grant an indemnity to the religious congregations in respect of cases which were eligible to be dealt with by the Residential Institutions Redress Board where the applicant opted to pursue the matter through the courts. The indemnity will operate for a period of six years from the date of the indemnity agreement – 5 June 2002.

It is expected that the majority of cases will be processed through the Residential Institutions Redress Board rather than the courts. Therefore, it is expected that the indemnity will apply in relatively few cases. To date the indemnity has been applied in one case where an out of court settlement was reached. A confidentiality clause was stipulated in the offer of the settlement. Therefore, I am not in a position to state the amount involved. However, I can state that the settlement was within the parameters of the redress bands used by the redress board.