Taoiseach vows to pursue legal options to force religious orders on compensation

BreakingNews.ie

09-07-2025

The Taoiseach has vowed to pursue a 'detailed examination' of how the state will make religious orders and institutions contribute towards compensating victims of historical sex abuse.
Micheál Martin said the Office of the Attorney General, the Department of Education and other state bodies are exploring legal options that could force religious orders to pay for any redress.
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On Tuesday, the Government approved the establishment of a commission of investigation into allegations of historical sex abuse in schools across the country.
Mr Justice Michael McGrath will chair the commission.
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Mr Martin said changes could be made to the statute of limitations on civil claims, as well as changes to the status of unincorporated associations.
Labour leader Ivana Bacik told the Dáil on Wednesday that as of September 2024, religious orders have paid 16 per cent of institutional redress costs that were owed.
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She also said that religious orders involved in historic sex abuse sold more than 75 properties worth a total of more than €90 million since 2016.
Successive governments have been unable to hold religious orders responsible for paying redress to victims of sex abuse over the years.
The Fianna Fáil leader told the Dáil that it was clear from the scoping inquiry that many survivors view financial redress as an 'important measure' of accountability for those who ran schools where sexual abuse happened.
'Government is pursuing now in a very detailed way, very detailed examination is taking place in terms of ensuring that those responsible, including religious orders, are held accountable and to ensure that they make redress,' he added.
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'The Office of the Attorney General is examining this with the Department of Education and other relevant bodies on legal options that may be available to the state.
'We are looking and examining changes to the statute of limitations on civil claims and changes to the status of unincorporated associations as well as looking at the assets that religious orders have, and an examination of how to ensure compensation from religious orders will run in parallel with the commission of investigation.
'It is complex work. It will require detailed consideration and may take some time to complete, and we will be open to engaging with you and constructive proposals that you have on this.'
Ms Bacik welcomed the commission, but said it must avoid the mistakes of the past.
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'I welcome the fact that you've spoken of an inclusive and survivor-led approach that's vitally important,' she added.
'But we do also need to ensure that religious orders that were complicit in the sexual abuse of children should be required to provide appropriate redress to survivors.
'We must also ensure access on a timely basis to redress for survivors.
'We're conscious the commission is going to run for at least five years, and we don't believe survivors should be forced to wait a further five years for the outcome of the process.
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'Survivors need assurance that organisations, religious bodies, religious orders in the church that were accountable and responsible for abuse that they should be made to pay.
'Church and state, but also religious order,s played a shameful role, as we know, and in particular, within religious orders, clerics were allowed, in some cases, to perpetrate appalling crimes against children with impunity.
'We need to go further than condemnation. We need to remove legal obstacles to pursuing religious orders.
'Religious orders, as we know, Taoiseach, for years, they've been carrying out a perfectly legal practice of transferring their assets and their properties to associated lay-run trusts.
'I've described this as the developer's wife syndrome, that puts assets often out of reach in or in some cases, out of reach of state authorities.
'It's not acceptable.'
The scoping inquiry found some 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse in day and boarding schools run by religious orders, involving 884 alleged abusers in 308 schools across the country, between 1927 and 2013.
Most of the allegations were reported from the records of some 42 religious orders.
The commission will examine the handling of allegations, suspicions and concerns of sex abuse in schools, failure to treat concerns, causes and responsibility for such failure, failure to prevent harm, and the concealment of child sex abuse.