Order told State to scrap vow on abuse redress

[Maurice Heaphy]

Order told State to scrap vow on abuse redress

Monday, November 04, 2013

The Government was told to scrap its pledge on the cost of the child abuse redress scheme before the most powerful religious order in education would discuss school patronage.

• By Conor Ryan

Investigative Correspondent

The demand was revealed in newly released records of a three-year stand-off between the State and congregations covered by the indemnity deal. 

The Government’s original plan had been to pursue the transfer of school properties from religious orders to bridge a perceived €500m shortfall in contributions to the redress scheme. The Sisters of Mercy said no. 

The 2011 Programme for Government said the transfers would be used to get the orders to cover 50% of the €1.5bn redress bill. 

In July, Education Minister Ruairi Quinn got Cabinet approval for a more conciliatory tack that would allow congregations to remain in control of schools but relinquish title to the land. 

According to a policy proposal put to Mr Quinn in February, the new strategy was designed to move the schools’ property debate away from the battle to get congregations to accept the 50:50 redress bill principle. 

The softer stance came after more than three years of fractious negotiations which commenced following the publication of the Ryan Report. 

The correspondence between Mr Quinn, his department, and the 18 orders covered under the indemnity deal has now been deemed eligible for release under the Freedom of Information Act. These revealed the frosty exchanges between the sides. 

The most significant struggle involved the Sisters of Mercy, which owns 96 schools worth €281m and which transferred a further 66, worth €412m, to the Ceist religious trust. 

It made an additional offer of €20m towards the new statutory fund, and property it valued at €107m. This offer was dismissed as inadequate and overvalued. 

Following meetings with the department, the order wrote a letter making it clear its voluntary contribution in response to the Ryan Report “was not a matter for negotiation”. 

It said it would not participate in any attempt by the State to revalue its post-2009 offer and it wanted the Programme for Government changed. 

“We are not willing to enter negotiations with Government towards its fulfilment of school infrastructure which it made in its Programme for Government for the transfer of school infrastructure,” the order wrote. 

In a memo to Mr Quinn, department officials said the compromised proposal, to transfer school sites without changing control, had been put to the 18 orders. Fifteen did not respond and the three that did express an interest only owned 16 schools between them.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved

[jack colleton]

Pauline.  hand in glove ops.

[jack colleton]

yes but i was not eating at the time!  that is assuming diagnosed. so many are not diagnosed. nor treated.  yes i do get your point about creative cost and profit. 

[Gaye Dalton]

But isn't that the point?

As an autistic you get two choices:

1. Infantilised, disenabled and confined for life

2. Left out to drown

The hardest truth of all for those who cannot get the services they need is that there *ARE* no services you really need...just people who want to make money out of fecking you up.

[jack colleton]

yes there are no services.  only interested in children.  school age. certainly true that it is very much more of the same  ..

[Gaye Dalton]

The services available for children usually do more harm than good anyway...

Parents can either fight for something worthless (if only to kid themselves and keep their morale up) or give up.

I used to fight for real help for me, until I saw how bad the best of the "help" available really is...(whether as an autistic, a survivor of childhood abuse, or a former sex worker)

It is ALL such a mess if anyone gave you the power to fix it you wouldn't know where to start...every bad thing seems to hide a worse thing underneath it.

The one thing you can be sure of is that the tools of independence and autonomy (like compensation) are anathema...your dependence MUST be protected at all costs...your dependence is a commodity that can be exploited at any time (even if they only leave you drowning), your independence has no value at all. 

[jack colleton]

oh yes. yes i get that. is there a book?

[Gaye Dalton]

Again, no book...you couldn't get this stuff published.

[jack colleton]

good to read here!

[pauline jackson]

Controlling the schools is controlling the future. But when the church controlled things there were too many rapes torture and poor schooling. Feeding children stuff thay dont believe themselves. Why let them continue. Thay frighten children with storys about the hate of god. i still remember some of it. scary.This life here is the one we have to compete in. Religion is a privite matter. It has no place in schools as learning is the objective.

[Gaye Dalton]

I think that is a very wise post Pauline, my Uncle (currently snoozing in the armchair) was educated, long ago in a very prestigious school run by the Brothers. They were taught the facts of life by being sent of a weekend retreat where the *SINS* they were not to commit were explained to them in graphic detail.

It is only a miracle ANY of them went on to be good husbands and fathers.

Education should be about neutral, objective fact, not superstition, or worse the ideological indoctrination it has morphed into. 

[pauline jackson]

I stil remember entire lessons about fallen women with red lights on the door.I was 8 and apart from the red lights i had no idea what that was about. Abording subjects like that in schools is unhealthy. Thier idea of teaching is to unhelpfull as it has to be unlearned. Thier attention on sex most of the time. All self esteem was rubbed out. Shit like your soul is the colour of your shoe soles. It makes climbing out of all that miles high. Without anybody there for us its easy to think that sex is affection. I wouldnt judge these people. We always have to pay our bills.

 

[jack colleton]

so many left Ireland broke in more ways one and vulnerable to what it takes to even stay in survival mode