IRELAND
Irish Times
Pat Leahy
The agreement between the State and the country’s religious orders has been repeatedly questioned since it came to light in the months after it was agreed in 2002.
Minister for Education Richard Bruton said on Friday that “moral pressure” will be applied on the orders, in a bid to persuade them to contribute more of the cost of compensating abuse victims.
Experience, however, suggests that the prospects for translating moral pressure into hard cash are mixed at best.
Legally, the 2002 deal it is rock solid. There is no unpicking it; that much is clear.
What is much less clear is why the State agreed it in the first place.
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