Readers Blog: Protestant institutions should also pay for abuse
The attempt to depict Roman Catholic religious orders as responsible for the shortfall in Caranua funding is a political sleight of hand (‘€8.5m funding shortfall for abuse victims’, Irish Examiner, August 1).
The statutory fund, that is about to run dry and for which applications have closed, provides ongoing supports for victims of institutional abuse.
The amount was set arbitrarily to coincide with payments made by the 18 religious orders into an indemnity fund, in an agreement dating back to 2002.
In return, the State set up a redress scheme for abuse victims. That, too, was a statutory obligation. While state-franchised religious bodies ran many of the institutions, it was the State that was responsible.
The religious orders element was set against redress funding. It was then set against funding of educational needs of abuse victims and their families, before being allocated to Caranua in 2012.
It is now used to deflect public attention from state responsibility and to limit support to victims.
This is demonstrated by the sectarian nature of the 2002 agreement. Besides Roman Catholic ethos homes, abuse also took place in institutions run by Protestants.
While residents of some Protestant institutions also received redress payments, not one cent was paid to the State by those institutions.
A feeble approach was made in 2005 to one set of Church of Ireland ethos children’s homes, run by the Smyly’s organisation. It was abandoned quickly and forgotten.
Today, victims of abuse in Smyly’s homes, who received payments from the Redress Board, receive support also from Caranua. By what logic are 18 Roman Catholic religious orders responsible for supporting abuse victims from Smyly’s homes?
Roman Catholic responsibility for abuse has been exposed. But that should not deflect from abuse suffered by Protestants.
And neither should Roman Catholic agreement to pay something, however minimal, to the State, deflect from the fact that Protestant institutions paid nothing.
The way out of this mess is either for the State to become less sectarian in its approach or, better, to assume full responsibility for abuse of defenceless young people in state-franchised institutions.
Blaming Roman Catholic religious orders for Caranua’s funding shortfall short-changes victims.
