Beyond time to make Church institutions pay

• RTÉ Investigates show that Christian Brothers held, sold or transferred 800 properties over the past 35 years

Labour leader Ivana Bacik said that the Government must now move to enact Labour’s Civil Liability (Child Sexual Abuse Proceedings Unincorporated Bodies of Persons) Bill 2024, legislation which would enable the State to compel religious orders to pay redress to survivors of abuse perpetrated within or by religious-run institutions, and also to survivors of mother and baby homes.

Speaking in advance of an RTÉ Investigates programme into assets held by Christian Brothers, Deputy Bacik has said that the time has come to compel religious orders to pay the fair share of redress to survivors.

Deputy Bacik said:

“We have a dark and shameful past of institutional abuse in Ireland. For many decades, we have seen religious orders and institutions engaged in the covering up of this tragic history, with resulting injustice to survivors.

“If we’ve learned anything as a nation, it is that accountability must be provided for survivors and victims of abuse.

“I want to commend the RTÉ Investigates team for their investigation into how child abusers within the Christian Brothers order were facilitated to remain at the core of its leadership, with power in managing the financial and business affairs of the order.

“There must be a reckoning for survivors of abuse. The State now must compel the Christian Brothers and other orders to provide survivors with the justice they deserve.

“Labour published a Bill last September which would provide a remedy for Government in order to address the legal obstruction tactics so routinely deployed by religious orders and their associated lay-run trusts. These tactics are used to avoid having to pay redress to those who have endured abuse in institutions controlled by such orders.

“Our Bill would address the imbalance of power that exists by facilitating civil proceedings against unincorporated bodies, such as religious orders, and by providing a mechanism for recovering damages from the ‘associated’ lay-run trusts set up by these bodies, to which their assets have typically been transferred.

“It’s time for accountability. This Government must now move to compel these orders to take responsibility for their actions.”