Mr Mervyn Rundle, the 28-year- old man who received a record sum in a High Court settlement with Dublin's Catholic archdiocese on Tuesday, has not been contacted by any priest of the archdiocese since 1995.
Nor was there any priest or representative of the archdiocese present in the High Court when the settlement was announced and an apology to him was made by Cardinal Connell. It was read by Mr John Finlay SC.
The apology followed Mr Rundle's insistence that it form part of any settlement arrived at between himself and the Catholic Church. Its wording was proposed by him and his lawyers and agreed through negotiation.
It acknowledged that Mr Rundle had been abused in 1985 and that had the archdiocese acted on concerns expressed before then about Father Thomas Naughton, the priest who had abused him, he could have been withdrawn from parish duty, avoiding Mr Rundle's abuse.
The last time Mr Rundle and and his parents met any priest representing the archdiocese was in 1995 when they visited Cardinal Connell to discuss their concerns about reports that Father Naughton had abused again since they last visited the archbishop's house about the priest in 1985.
The Cardinal received them courteously and was very apologetic, Mr Rundle recalled. After that meeting, the Rundle family and the archdiocese informed the Garda about Father Naughton's abuse. Mr Rundle initiated the civil action which resulted in Tuesday's settlement.
Since then he recalls being approached by priests of the archdiocese just once. That was in 1998 outside the courtroom where Father Naughton had been convicted of abusing four boys, including himself. Two priests from the archdiocese approached him to shake hands.
The statement of claim in his civil action was served on the archdiocese in 1996. In 1998 it entered a defence, claiming that the statute of limitation disbarred such action against Father Naughton.
The first meeting at which terms for the settlement were discussed took place before Christmas last. Four further meetings took place.
Following Tuesday's settlement, the Fine Gael spokeswoman on education, Ms Olwyn Enright, has called on the Minister for Education to reopen the deal "negotiated between his predecessor and various religious congregations" last year.
She said that "without knowing the full extent of the compensation to be paid to victims of abuse, the Government agreed to cap the contributions which it would receive from religious congregations at €128 million".
This was " a short-sighted and potentially very expensive decision".
