€200m sought from religious congregations

Taoiseach Brian Cowen said the Government will continue working with the 18 religious congregations in a bid to get them to contribute €200 million to the fund for the victims of abuse in the residential institutions run by the congregations.

Speaking in Cork, Mr Cowen said that following the Ryan Report, he met with the congregations with a view to discussing the issue of moral responsibility for what happened in the institutions and whether they could contribute further to fund for former residents.

Mr Cowen said that the Ryan Report had referred to "the shared responsibility of both the state and the congregations" in this regard and a result of this meeting, a process was put in place to establish the assets, commitments and liabilities of the congregations.

The Government issued a statement yesterday in which it said that final cost of the response to the residential institutional abuse was €1.36 million and the collective contribution of the congregations was estimated to be €476.51 million.

In order to ensure that there was a 50/50 divide between church and state, the contribution from the congregations would have to reach some €680 million, resulting in the state seeking a further €200 million euro from the congregations, said the government.

Mr Cowen said that a meeting with the survivors of residential abuse was to brief them on this proposal to seek a further €200 million euro from the congregations and the government would work with the congregations over time to achieve this.

"I want to work with the congregations to see in what way we can over time because it will not be done in a short period, to see over time to what way further contributions can be made by them and they've agreed to enter in that process," he said.

"I've also spoken to the groups, those who have been the subject of abuse in the past and I've indicated that the cash element of the proposal that's been put forward should form part of a statutory fund to enable the wider requirements of people who suffered abuse in the past, how that can best be dealt with through that fund."