The State initially sought twice as much in cash and property from religious orders than was eventually paid as a contribution to the compensation scheme for victims of abuse in institutional care, newly released documents show.
Department of Education documents, released to The Irish Times under the Freedom of Information Act, show that the State's opening position was to seek €190 million from the religious orders, and to refuse to count property previously transferred to the State.
Its private fallback position was to accept €128 million, none of which would be made up of properties already transferred to the State.
Ultimately, however, the State accepted €128 million, of which some €40 million was made up of property already transferred to the State or other bodies. The true value of what is being paid over as a result of the setting-up of the compensation scheme is therefore under €90 million, in exchange for the indemnity against compensation claims extended to the orders by the State.
Despite the State's opening position, the orders initially offered just €57 million in cash and property, asking that some €51 million worth of property transferred to the State in the previous decade be taken into account. Within days, the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, wrote to the then minister for education, Dr Michael Woods, to say the offer was "quite disappointing and far short of what I feel would amount to a meaningful contribution". However, the Department of Education warned that the orders had adopted a "take-it-or-leave-it attitude".
The State continued to insist it would not inflate the headline figure by counting properties already transferred. In November 2001, the Department of Education wrote to the Conference of Religious in Ireland saying it was "difficult to see how such transfers can be included in the final package of measures, given that they occurred without any reference to a redress scheme for former residents in institutions". It was suggested they give €128 million, excluding such property.
The dispute over what properties to include continued up to the last minute. In April 2002, the State said it would accept properties transferred after May 11th, 1999, the date of the Taoiseach's public apology to the victims of abuse.
However, the Department of Finance wrote to the Department of Education that it "cannot agree that any transfer of property to a non-governmental organisation should be considered" as part of the congregations' contribution. But on May 8th, the State relented, agreeing the congregations could include properties transferred to registered charities, public bodies or the State, but not to any body owned or controlled by any religious congregation or church body.