The Labour Party has described as "inexplicable" the State's decision to allow religious orders give just €128 million to the compensation fund for victims of abuse in institutions.
The party's education spokeswoman, Ms Jan O'Sullivan, said that documents released under the Freedom of Information Act and published in yesterday's Irish Times showed that the State had "capitulated in the face of pressure from the religious organisations".
"We now know that the State moved from a position where it was seeking €190m from the orders and refusing to count property already transferred, to one where it accepted a total package worth €128m, including property that had already been transferred. Of this the actual cash contribution from the religious congregations amounted to less than €30m."
She said the State had abandoned its original position, accepted a much-reduced contribution from the religious organisations and exposed the taxpayer to potentially unlimited exposure in terms of the indemnity provided to the religious orders. "However, we still do not know why this was done."
Ms O'Sullivan also noted that the material published yesterday included a letter from the Minister for Finance, Mr McCreevy, to the then minister for education, Dr Woods, which gave an insight into Government thinking on the issue.
Such information "will no longer be available if the Government gets away with its plans to fillet the Act, as correspondence between Government Ministers will then be specifically protected from public or media scrutiny."
She said the material also undermined a claim made by Dr Woods that the deal was effectively concluded in early 2002.