Victims of abuse at the hands of religious orders last night criticised the amount of money which congregations were putting into a proposed fund to compensate them.
However, the co-ordinator of SOCA (Survivors of Child Abuse) said he was pleased the religious had at least finally accepted responsibility for the abuse perpetrated on persons in their care.
Mr John Kelly of SOCA said he was none the less extremely disappointed the religious were still trying to avoid their responsibility to victims of abuse by contributing only €38 million in cash to the redress scheme. This was a paltry sum, he said.
"The cash is what matters. That is the only thing victims will see," he added.
Bishop Eamon Walsh, chairman of the Catholic Bishops' Child Protection Committee, said: "I think the religious and CORI have been extremely generous in the way that they have responded and in the noble way in which they have set about doing all of this."
He told RTÉ News: "They are very anxious, like everybody else, to bring as much healing as quickly as possible to the people who have been in the institutions, and they have apologised. This is an earnest expression of such an apology once again and it's really putting their money where their mouth is. I think they are to be congratulated.
"It must be extremely strenuous on their resources to pay the amount that they are going to pay because you have to judge generosity in the light of persons' ability to pay."
Mr Kelly claimed the deal which the religious reached with the Government meant they were getting out of their responsibility "on the cheap". "I think a lot of victims will be extremely annoyed and upset over this," he said.
"They seem to spend more on 'spin' and on protecting the image of the church than on the needs of the victims."
He added that if the State didn't add substantially more to the package he would be advising SOCA members to revert to taking civil actions as the only way of getting meaningful compensation.
Ms Christine Buckley, who was a victim of abuse at Goldenbridge, said the €38 million was a "pittance". Some 145,000 children passed through industrial schools since the 1930s and this would mean average payments to each of €262,000.
"What kind of a house would you get for that?" she asked. Many of those who went through industrial schools were now homeless.
Ms Buckley, who is co-ordinator of the Aislinn centre for victims of institutional abuse, criticised the Minister for Education, Dr Woods, for not "showing his hand" first and putting on the table what the State would contribute to the redress scheme before the religious orders did.
Victims of abuse in industrial schools would not be happy unless, at a minimum, two-thirds of whatever compensation was forthcoming came from religious sources, she said.
This was why it was so important for the Minister to put his money on the table first.
"These institutions were not inspected in the past because of the power of the church, and here the religious are again calling the shots.
"Here we are in the year 2002 and nothing has changed. There may be fewer religious but the religious are still empowering the Government as regards this compensation.
Ms Buckley said the money offered was a "pittance" compared with the amount earned for religious orders by children making rosary beads and doing laundry in institutions.