Mrs Marie Collins, who was abused by Dublin priest Father Paul McGennis, has reacted angrily to news that 16 years ago the majority of Irish Catholic dioceses had insurance cover against claims arising from clerical child sex abuse. "They knew enough to protect themselves financially, but not enough to protect children," she said last night.
It was "very hard to be involved with people who can be so devious", she said.
At a meeting after Christmas with Cardinal Desmond Connell and Bishop Eamonn Walsh, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin and Apostolic Administrator for Ferns diocese, Mrs Collins agreed to assist with a review of the church's guidelines on clerical child sex abuse.
To date she has met the bishops' Child Protection Officer, Mr Paul Bailey, and Mr David Kennedy, chairman of the Dublin advisory panel on clerical child sex abuse.
Her qualified belief, that by becoming involved she could help victims - "not to bolster the church" - had taken "a couple of knocks", she said.
There was "the very legalistic apology" by Cardinal Connell to Mr Mervyn Rundle, read in the High Court last week, and Mrs Rundle's disclosure that since 1996 no one from the archdiocese had come near her family.
"And now this. I don't know how you can work with people like that," she said.
"How can you say they learned anything? It's the whole mindset. It's about self-protection and protecting the institution at all costs. Their claims that they didn't know anything about it [clerical child sex abuse] is totally at variance [with their arranging insurance cover], while leaving children in danger."
Mr Colm O'Gorman of the One in Four group, which assists victims of childhood sexual abuse, said disclosure about the bishops' insurance arrangements "finally exposes the church's real priorities and the gross dishonesty of its protestations of the past 15 years that it had little awareness or understanding of clerical sexual abuse."
It demonstrated "beyond any doubt that the Catholic Church callously acted in the face of such clear knowledge of clerical abuse to protect its financial wealth and did nothing of substance to protect abused and vulnerable children," he said.
It was clear "that far from acting in isolation, the Irish bishops have had a joined-up, collective policy of responding to and dealing with clerical sexual abuse in Ireland for almost 16 years. It is finally clear beyond any doubt that the scandal of clerical sexual abuse is a scandal of institutional rather than individual corruption," he said.
Mr John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse (SOCA) expressed shock at the bishops' admissions.
The situation was "completely at odds with statements and pronouncements" over the years "that the church was unaware of the extent of abuse by priests throughout Ireland".
Calling once more for the resignation of Cardinal Connell, Mr Kelly said the archbishop "has lost all moral authority to continue in office". The behaviour of the church over recent years, in its treatment of people like Mr Rundle and others, could be likened to that of an insurance loss adjuster, he said.
