State Delays Cost Victims ˆ100m, by Michael Kelly, Irish Catholic, July 7, 2011

State Delays Cost Victims ˆ100m

By Michael Kelly
Irish Catholic
July 7, 2011

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/state-delays-cost-victims-ˆ100m

Many elderly former residents of the religious run institutions investigated by the Ryan Report, some of them said to be in dire straits, cannot access compensation due to Government delays in setting up the compensation fund.

The Irish Catholic understands that the two-year delay in setting up the statutory compensation fund has meant a loss of an estimated €100m in value due to the property crash.

At the same time, some €20m in cash already handed over by the religious congregations to aid former residents is, according to sources, sitting in an account in the Central Bank earning interest for the Government with no immediate prospect of being used to come to the aid of needy former residents.

Religious congregations are adamant that they do not want to hand the funds to the State to use for unspecified purposes and will only agree the transfer once the fund is established and there is a legal guarantee that the aid will go to former residents.

There is intense concern in Church circles about the use by the Minister for Education of the compensation issue to try and gain leverage over Catholic schools.

On Tuesday, Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn reiterated his call for religious congregations to hand over schools to State control as part of an additional contribution to redress.

The minister also said that, in the absence of the transfer of the schools from the religious, he would have to implement deep cuts in educational spending.

Church sources said they were "surprised" at Minister Quinn's suggestion that school infrastructure could be handed over to make up his target of an extra €200m.

"The Government can't actualise any value from the schools.

"Even if they take them over and remove the religious influence, the schools will still have to function as schools and therefore be unable to be sold.

"It's strange that Minister Quinn is suggesting that, in the absence of the transfer of the schools from the religious, his department will have to implement deep cuts, despite the fact that the State will have no potential to earn income on the schools," one source said.

Meanwhile, The Irish Catholic understands that the value of the original €476m deal agreed by religious has fallen by up to €100m due to the State's delay in establishing the fund.

This is due to the fact that the overwhelming majority of the offer was made up of property which has fallen in value by some 20pc.

More than two years after the Dáil passed a motion on the fund in May 2009, the current Fine Gael-Labour coalition -- which unanimously supported the fund while in opposition -- has been unable to bring forward legislation on establishing the fund.

Speaking this week, Mr Quinn was unable to shed any light on the timeframe only to say that "the Government is to proceed" with legislation to form such a fund.

Another senior Church source said that the religious congregations have shown determination and goodwill in this process but the Government have yet to show the memorandum and articles of the proposed statutory fund.

Several religious orders have written to the Government to express frustration at this delay which means former residents are unable to draw down compensation.

Insinuation

Religious are also annoyed that there is a regular insinuation that they won't hand over the assets. The source said, in fact, they can't, until the Government publishes the legislation.

There is also growing concern that there is an orchestrated campaign to portray orders as sitting on immense wealth and assets, ignoring the fact that these assets are often held in trust and are used for social and charitable services.