Jan O’Sullivan ‘committed’ to 50-50 split in redress scheme

Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan has insisted she is “fully committed” to pursuing religious congregations for half of the €1.45 billion bill for the institutional redress scheme.

This is despite strong resistance from congregations which are refusing to accept the principle of a 50:50 split, while also delaying the handover of promised properties.

To date, the congregations have paid €81.44 million in cash to the redress fund, largely through the sale of property. Other properties valued at €42 million have been transferred to the state.

A further tranche of more than €300 million of property which the religious orders pledged to the state by way of compensation in 2009 has yet to be transferred.

But, according to the department, even when all these commitments are met, the congregations will be €245 million short of meeting their 50 per cent share – or €725 million – of the final bill.

Department memo In a statement, the department said Ms O’Sullivan “will continue her predecessor’s efforts to impress on congregations the need to increase their contributions to achieve that [50:50]target.”

However, a department memo prepared last May noted: “Apart from one congregation that believes its contribution represents its 50 per cent share, the remaining congregations have either declined to comment on the appropriateness of, or disagree with the 50:50 principle.”

The idea of splitting the costs in half was advanced by former minister for education Ruairí Quinn in 2011 amid intense criticism of the 2002 indemity deal signed by former taoiseach Bertie Ahern.

While the congregations agreed to increase their payments in 2009 following the Ryan report into institutional child abuse, they stopped short of accepting 50 per cent of the cost burden.

Christian Brothers

Documents released under the Freedom of Information Act show Ms O’Sullivan wrote to a number of congregations last October which were behind on their scheduled payments.

These included the Christian Brothers, which has still to contribute €24 million in a promised cash contribution, and has also yet to transfer school playing fields and associated lands valued at €127 million to an independent trust jointly held by the Government and the Edmund Rice Schools Trust.

The Christian Brothers said they were still awaiting a review of their “assets, liabilities and potential liabilities” before proceeding. They said they would contact the department “when we have determined capacity to make our contributions”.

A previous round of correspondence by Ms O’Sullivan’s predecessor, Ruairí Quinn, in October 2013 elicited similar responses.

A department memo said the Christian Brothers had informed Mr Quinn “that a fire sale was in no-one’s interest and that they were continuing to monitor market developments”.