Religious orders must engage with minister on Ryan report

I have called on religious orders to stop trying to avoid paying their fair share of compensation to the victims of residential abuse.

It is high time that the congregations named in the Ryan Report face up to their moral and financial responsibilities and begin a serious engagement with the State as to how best they can make a credible contribution to compensating victims.

I am deeply alarmed by media reports which indicate that at least some of the orders involved are planning to reject an invitation issued to them by my colleague and Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to attend talks on Friday to discuss the issue. This kind of behaviour is completely unacceptable and suggests that the orders are trying to frustrate attempts by this new government to ensure that the financial liability is spread fairly between Church and State.

I fully endorse Minister Quinn's statement last week in which he called for a 50:50 contribution from both sides. The religious orders have only paid a fraction of that figure to date and they need to step up to the mark. As has been suggested already, one way of making up some of the shortfall would include transferring ownership of school properties to the State.

Unlike the shameful actions of the then Fianna Fail/PD government in 2002, where religious orders were allowed to make only a token contribution to compensating abuse victims, Labour and our colleagues in this administration are determined that the figure agreed at the end of this process is fair and just to all concerned.