Abuse victims unite in call for €600m extra compensation
Government urged to fulfil promise redress body will match court awards
VICTIM groups now want religious orders to pay €600m directly to survivors of institutional child sex abuse.
By John Cooney and Breda Heffernan
Monday August 17 2009
None of the compensation money should go to cover administrative, legal or medical costs, a new alliance of survivors of abuse groups has said.
Instead survivors want the Government to keep a promise made in 2002 that the Redress Board awards would match average High Court payouts in personal injury claims.
The average award by the Redress Board, set up by former Education Minister Michael Woods, was €70,000 so it could mean each survivor receiving an additional €230,000.
A summit meeting held in Dublin yesterday called on the Government to take "robust" action against the religious orders whom they accused of trying to draw out talks on additional payments to top up the €127m agreed by the Ahern Government in 2002.
...
Hold-ups
A joint statement called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to name Children's Minister Barry Andrews as chief coordinator and facilitator to channel the extra money to victims without administrative hold-ups.
The statement asked if it was "morally monstrous" to demand the full and proper restitution that was promised to them seven years ago.
"The (Catholic Church) hierarchy should now make a meaningful financial contribution and accept its shameful role in creating the infrastructure of abuse that allowed its religious orders to operate with impunity," it added. ...
Government urged to fulfil promise redress body will match court awards
VICTIM groups now want religious orders to pay €600m directly to survivors of institutional child sex abuse.
By John Cooney and Breda Heffernan
Monday August 17 2009
None of the compensation money should go to cover administrative, legal or medical costs, a new alliance of survivors of abuse groups has said.
Instead survivors want the Government to keep a promise made in 2002 that the Redress Board awards would match average High Court payouts in personal injury claims.
The average award by the Redress Board, set up by former Education Minister Michael Woods, was €70,000 so it could mean each survivor receiving an additional €230,000.
A summit meeting held in Dublin yesterday called on the Government to take "robust" action against the religious orders whom they accused of trying to draw out talks on additional payments to top up the €127m agreed by the Ahern Government in 2002.
...
Hold-ups
A joint statement called on Taoiseach Brian Cowen to name Children's Minister Barry Andrews as chief coordinator and facilitator to channel the extra money to victims without administrative hold-ups.
The statement asked if it was "morally monstrous" to demand the full and proper restitution that was promised to them seven years ago.
"The (Catholic Church) hierarchy should now make a meaningful financial contribution and accept its shameful role in creating the infrastructure of abuse that allowed its religious orders to operate with impunity," it added. ...
hele artikel
Victims seek timeframe for audit of assets
GROUPS REPRESENTING survivors of abuse in industrial schools have warned the Government it must not allow the verification of the financial standing of religious congregations to become a lengthy affair.
The verification concerns those congregations which promised further redress to victims following the publication of the Ryan report in May.
Following a meeting of the groups in Dublin yesterday, John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse said the Government was prepared for a “long drawn-out process” with the religious to establish their assets and to determine what could or could not be released to the victims.
But he warned victims would not stand for that. “We are saying to the Government they need to be more robust and they need to be more urgent about what needs to be done,” he said.
The Government appointed a three-person panel at the end of last month to assess the statements of resources submitted by religious congregations following publication of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse.
The panel, chaired by Frank Daly, former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, has no specific deadline.
hele artikel
Victims seek timeframe for audit of assets
GROUPS REPRESENTING survivors of abuse in industrial schools have warned the Government it must not allow the verification of the financial standing of religious congregations to become a lengthy affair.
The verification concerns those congregations which promised further redress to victims following the publication of the Ryan report in May.
Following a meeting of the groups in Dublin yesterday, John Kelly of Irish Survivors of Child Abuse said the Government was prepared for a “long drawn-out process” with the religious to establish their assets and to determine what could or could not be released to the victims.
But he warned victims would not stand for that. “We are saying to the Government they need to be more robust and they need to be more urgent about what needs to be done,” he said.
The Government appointed a three-person panel at the end of last month to assess the statements of resources submitted by religious congregations following publication of the Commission of Inquiry into Child Abuse.
The panel, chaired by Frank Daly, former chairman of the Revenue Commissioners, has no specific deadline.
hele artikel
The New York Catholic Conference's Aggressive Bid to Stop Reform of Child Sex Abuse Laws
Marcia Hamilton
The ugliest confrontation to date, which was engineered by the bishops and pitted believers against survivors, occurred in front of Lopez's office. A handful of Jewish and Catholic survivors have been staging a protest there for weeks. DiMarzio organized a group of believers to march in support of Lopez's opposition to the Child Victims Act. Two busloads of people were taken to the neighborhood and told – contrary to the facts, as noted above -- that the CVA did not apply to public institutions and that it would bankrupt the dioceses, causing losses of services. About a dozen survivors, who had been raped as children by priests and rabbis, stood across the street holding signs in favor of the Child Victims Act. When the survivors confronted the sadly uninformed marchers with the truth about the bill and the misinformation from the bishops and Lopez, they told me directly, some of the marchers actually threw coins at the survivors.
If the Conference were not pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into lobbying, and if it were not employing the tactics I have described above, the CVA would have been the law long ago. And today we would know the identities of hundreds of New York child predators who are now, instead, enjoying the anonymity – and protection – afforded them by existing state law. Fewer children would be subject to abuse right now. Instead, the Conference and DiMarzio and Lopez have become the sworn enemies of New York's children and of the truth.
New York State Assemblyman Vito Lopez (D, 53rd District) speaks at the Knights of Columbus prayer rally on May 12, 2009 regarding two sexual-abuse bills under consideration in the assembly and state senate.
(Zie Kay Ebeling)
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