The State is resisting claims that it should pay the costs of three sets of legal representatives involved in the first hearing of High Court action for damages for the alleged sexual abuse of a boy at Madonna House.
The action was heard over eight days last March but judgment, reserved at the time by Mr Justice Cyril Kelly, was never delivered because the judge resigned in the interim.
When the case came for rehearing before Mr Justice Finnegan yesterday, the judge was told it had been settled.
The plaintiff, a Dublin barman, agreed to accept an undisclosed sum in damages arising from his claim that he was sexually abused by a cleric when he was a child in care at Madonna House, Blackrock, Dublin, some 20 years ago.
The settlement, to be paid by Eastern Health Board and the Sisters of Charity, was without admission of liability. The man will also get his legal costs for yesterday's brief rehearing.
A major issue arose at the end of yesterday's hearing concerning who should pay the costs incurred at the first hearing by the three parties involved.
Mr Justice Finnegan rejected an application by the man's lawyers to join the State in the proceedings before the court. He said the man could pursue a separate action seeking costs of the abortive hearing from the State.
The EHB and the Sisters of Charity informed the court they would also be seeking their costs from the State.
When the action was before Mr Justice Cyril Kelly, it was alleged that in the late 1970s and early 1980s, a person who was or subsequently became a Catholic priest occupied a room in a chalet in which the plaintiff and other children were accommodated.
Mr Adrian Hardiman SC, for the man, told the previous hearing it was admitted by the priest that while at Madonna House in the capacity of house father, he sexually assaulted the man, who is now in his late 20s.